Spot on Beau! Years ago in the Army we had training on Soviet disinformation/misinformation tactics and you laid it out beautifully. Thank you!
How would the US react to the collapse of the Petro-dollar system?
The petrodollar system entails that oil can be bought or sold only in dollars.
As a result, most countries need (a) to acquire dollars through trade with the US and (b) to keep reserves of dollars in order to meet their oil demand. The net effect is to create global demand for dollars which is anchored in global demand for oil.Global demand for dollars creates upward pressure on their value which protects (to some significant extent) against losses in purchasing power associated with inflation. This allows the US to pursue policies which might otherwise erode the value of the dollar and accrue large debts without foreign creditors losing confidence in the value of the repayments.
Countries which have attempted to leave the petrodollar system by trading oil in other currencies (Iraq and Libya) have shortly afterward been targeted by the US in military interventions. Some commentators have posited a connection, arguing that the real goals of US foreign policy are to protect the petrodollar system rather than to locate WMDs or fight terrorism. Whether or not this view can be substantiated, it is probably true to say that the collapse of the petrodollar system would be very damaging to the US economy.
Inflation would increase substantially, increasing the cost of business and the cost of living. Foreign countries may no longer be willing to accept dollars in exchange for their exports to the US. This would adversely affect import-based industries. Additionally, foreign creditors may lose confidence – impairing the ability of the US to roll over or its national debt. This could lead to a default, an inability of the government to meet social security obligations and possible civil unrest. In order to offset these effects the US may try, as has been said already, to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign imports. This could be achieved through reversing the balance of trade; shifting from an import-based consumer economy to an export-based manufacturing economy. However, kickstarting a manufacturing base within the US may be difficult as this requires investment and with dollars losing purchasing power, there would be little capital available to invest.
Just my two cents (no pun intended)
Why Louisiana Stays Poor
With all Louisiana’s wealth in natural resources and industry, WHY DO WE STAY SO POOR?
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Wow, as an outsider (not from Louisiana) I’ve visited the state numerous times, and the impression is always the same—shocking poverty and decay. I’ve always thought of Louisiana as an under-developed state that has just been passed-by the 20th & 21st Centuries. To learn that economically, it’s a very wealthy state with huge economic production and growth from which residents are deriving little to no benefit SCREAMS exploitation. This is a clear lesson in the vital importance of taxes and how they are used.
“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems – of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.”
But how does bitcoin actually work? (2017)
The math behind cryptocurrencies.
Help fund future projects: https://www.patreon.com/3blue1brown
An equally valuable form of support is to simply share some of the videos.
Special thanks to these supporters: http://3b1b.co/btc-thanks
This video was also funded with help from Protocol Labs: https://protocol.ai/join/Some people have asked if this channel accepts contributions in cryptocurrency form. As a matter of fact, it does:
http://3b1b.co/crypto
ENS: 3b1b.eth2^256 video: https://youtu.be/S9JGmA5_unY
Music by Vincent Rubinetti: https://soundcloud.com/vincerubinetti…
Here are a few other resources I’d recommend:
Original Bitcoin paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Block explorer: https://blockexplorer.com/
Blog post by Michael Nielsen: http://3b1b.co/crypto
(This is particularly good for understanding the details of what transactions look like, which is something this video did not cover)Video by CuriousInventor: https://youtu.be/Lx9zgZCMqXE
Video by Anders Brownworth: https://youtu.be/_160oMzblY8
Ethereum white paper: https://goo.gl/XXZddT
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>> It’s 100% possible. And in fact, the top 4 miners of bitcoin have more than 50% of the network’s total hashing power. However, if you have 50% of the total mining network’s computation, you’re probably better off using it to make ~$2.2 Million a day with honest mining than you to defraud a single individual.
>> the specific name for this scenario is a “50% attack”