Strange is the stoical silence officially maintained by US while the world suffers with uncontrolled rise of crude prices. The reasons could be many but in order to put them in perspective one would need to go a little backwards in history. Petrol and diesel vehicles have been in use for a few generations but petroleum became a strategic product only after second world war when the world witnessed what wright brothers flying machines could achieve in their new avatar as airplanes.
Still the crude prices remained quite stable through 1950s and 1960s. It was largely due to Bretton woods accord and virtual monopoly of US Dollar as the currency of international trade. However, all was not well and US was printing more dollars than it gold reserves could permit and due to all countries denominating their international trade in dollars the US was exporting inflation to other countries. Almost all currencies of the world were pegged onto US dollar and all was quite well with the world until US unilaterally rescinded from Bretton woods accord. Readers not familiar with this part of history will find my lecture notes quite useful accessible by clicking here
Now US may be shying away from constructive action to check crude prices because of a bad conscience for having caused it in the first place. Or it could be that US speculators are equal partners in the windfall gains made by arbitrary spurts in crude prices. In any case the time has come when US has to own its responsibility and take constructive action the way it has always done.
Still the crude prices remained quite stable through 1950s and 1960s. It was largely due to Bretton woods accord and virtual monopoly of US Dollar as the currency of international trade. However, all was not well and US was printing more dollars than it gold reserves could permit and due to all countries denominating their international trade in dollars the US was exporting inflation to other countries. Almost all currencies of the world were pegged onto US dollar and all was quite well with the world until US unilaterally rescinded from Bretton woods accord. Readers not familiar with this part of history will find my lecture notes quite useful accessible by clicking here
Now US may be shying away from constructive action to check crude prices because of a bad conscience for having caused it in the first place. Or it could be that US speculators are equal partners in the windfall gains made by arbitrary spurts in crude prices. In any case the time has come when US has to own its responsibility and take constructive action the way it has always done.
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