The United States is socially, politically and economically in crisis. As an increasingly large number of people are priced out of the economy, fewer and fewer buy into the sham of electoral politics. On the world stage, too, the U.S. is suffering. Countries everywhere are beginning to drop the dollar as the standard unit of exchange, and Washington’s prestige has been severely shaken due to its relentless, unequivocal support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Ben Norton joins MintCast host Mnar Adley to discuss all this and more. Norton is an investigative journalist and founder of Geopolitical Economy Report, a news source dedicated to looking at the world and seeing the big picture. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Beijing, China.
“The dollar is – even more than the military – the strongest weapon the United States has,” Norton told Adley, explaining that, because of the exorbitant privilege it enjoys in printing the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. can simply export many of its economic problems. It also means that Washington can print more money to pay for its military misadventures around the world. Thus, the dollar system has allowed the U.S. to preserve its global empire and avoid inflation despite running a massive global trade deficit for decades.
“I hate when countries go off the dollar,” Donald Trump said recently, adding: “I would not allow countries to go off the dollar because when we lose that standard, that will be like losing a Revolutionary war. That would be a hit to our country, just like losing a war. And we can’t let that happen.”
And yet that is precisely what is coming to pass, as even U.S. allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have taken steps in that direction. Previously, if any country defied Washington’s orders, it would be sanctioned into oblivion. Indeed, U.S. sanctions are powerful enough to destroy the economies of relatively small countries, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela. However, as Norton noted, Russia, and especially China, are simply “too big to sanction.”
The U.S. economy has also been propped up by the petrodollar system, whereby the U.S. guaranteed the safety and the continuation of unpopular gulf monarchies, saving them from popular rebellions, and, in return, those dictatorships sold their oil in dollars, bought U.S. government bonds, stored their money in American banks, and allowed American corporations to profit from the oil industry. However, it appears that this system is reaching its end stage. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have joined the BRICS economic bloc and have begun selling oil in other currencies.
Therefore, Washington, if it wants to hold onto power in the Middle East, needs Israel more than ever. This partially explains the unshakeable support the Biden administration has offered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even as he carries out a genocide in Palestine. And now, Netanyahu is attempting to lure the U.S. into a regional war with his attack on Lebanon. “Israel is now doing to Lebanon what it has been doing to Gaza,” Norton said.
Join us for a fantastic conversation where Ben Norton stitches together the fabric of the world’s top political news stories, allowing us to see the big picture.
Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.
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Also, check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.
