There’s a very good book about the marriage of Big Oil and Big Politics, by Linda McQuaig, entitled “It’s The Crude Dude.” I’m quite certain our right-leaning participants on Piggington won’t like it, but for the rest of us, it puts a lot of the pieces together on how we got there, and why we’re staying there (in Iraq). If you like non-fiction, it’s completely absorbing.
As for the decline of the petrodollar, it’s not good for us at all. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. I suspect it will only take one big player like Russia for many, many others to follow, including Chavez in Venezuela, and right behind him, France.
It’s not only our economy that can take a hit from something like this, it’s our role in the world, and how the rest of the world views us.