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https://theconversation.com/not-every-us-president-gets-a-free-private-jet-but-the-gulf-states-have-boosted-us-economic-dominance-for-decades-256655>
"After signing a US$142 billion (£107 billion) arms deal with Saudi Arabia,
Donald Trump said the US bond with that country was “more powerful than ever”.
He was also reportedly quite pleased with the gift of a private jet from Qatar.
But these arrangements are just the latest developments in a long history of
the Gulf monarchies supporting the architecture of American global power. And
while the six Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar,
Bahrain and Oman) have recently started redirecting their energy and trade ties
eastward, especially towards China, they remain deeply embedded in the US-led
financial order.
As I explore in my recent book,
Crude Capitalism, the Gulf states were
instrumental in the rise of American global economic dominance.
With oil emerging as the dominant fossil fuel through the second half of the
20th century, the Gulf’s nationalised petroleum industries generated vast
amounts of income. Much of this was invested back into the US financial
markets, particularly treasury bonds (essentially a long-term loan to the US
government). This gave the US access to cheap foreign capital and reinforced
the global dominance of the dollar.
Put simply, the Gulf states were not peripheral to the US’s growing financial
power – they were an essential contributor."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
