The Death of the Petro dollar: What It Means for America

Listen to This Article
The Death of the Petro dollar: What It Means for America.

The United States, due to its unrivalled industries, has always controlled the global markets. The country invented nearly every aspect of every major manufacturing industry in the world - steel, coal, railroads, shipping, oil, textiles, automotive, airplanes, aerospace, semiconductors, and nearly everything else, including the assembly line and the creation of interchangeable parts.

Death of the Petro Dollar Coin

2026 “Death of Petro Dollar” Silver Proof Coin, by Chris Duane

When Samuel Slater opened the first water-powered cotton-spinning mills in Rhode Island in 1790, he initiated the U.S. Industrial Revolution. In fact, he is referred to as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution.” America’s unprecedented freedom to follow your dreams, its abounding natural resources, its nearly unlimited manpower, its citizenry’s ingenious inclination toward problem-solving, and the desire to succeed, spread like wild fire.

The Protestant Work Ethic amplified the development of new and improved products. These highly motivated men literally worked night and day to accomplish their goals. Once the Industrial Revolution began, inventive and creative American men never looked back. The names of some of our most revered manufacturing Titans remain emblazoned on museums, universities, libraries, theaters, churches, skyscrapers, hospitals and concert halls across the country.

Some of the most industrious, influential and prominent men of the Industrial Revolution included Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) railroads and shipping; Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) steel; Henry Ford (1863-1947) automobiles and the assembly line; Eli Whitney (1765-1825) cotton gin; J.P. Morgan (1837-1913) banking: John H. Hall (1781-1841) mass production and breech-loading rifle; and John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) kerosene, gasoline and oil.

These American industries were unrivaled. When their production began to outpace America’s needs, they looked overseas for new markets. At the time of the Industrial Revolution, London was the banking center of the world and, more importantly, every world currency was backed by physical gold.

As a result, the British established a system of exchange whereby every international transaction could be processed using “Sterling Bills.”  These were also referred to as “Bills of Exchange” and they could be redeemed for gold in any European country as well as in the United States.

This process began to fall apart in Europe during the 1930’s Depression. It started in Germany/Austria in July 1931 when the Austrian bank, Creditanstat, collapsed.The country was forced to declare a “Bank Holiday”, which barred everyone from converting the mark to gold, thus crushing the gold standard because it no longer had enough gold to back its currency.

Death of the Petro Dollar Dual Coin

2026 “Death of Petro Dollar" Silver Proof Coin, by Chris Duane

Great Britain suffered severe runs on gold and abandoned the peg to gold in September 1931. Scandinavia, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, were next. Italy was finally forced to abandon the gold standard in 1934 after Mussolini's efforts to support the gold standard failed. France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium soon followed in 1935-1936.

The Second World War began in Europe in 1939 and when it was finally over in 1945. Europe, including England, were destroyed.  The physical devastation was unprecedented and unparalleled in human history. Entire historic cities were laid to waste including every business, bank, grocery store, school, house, manufacturing plant, military base, hospital and courthouse. The prospect of rebuilding was almost unfathomable.

The extent of the rebuilding and reconstruction needed was not only mind-boggling, but to make matters worse, all of the countries were broke. In fact, even their banking systems were broke.  They lacked the needed money to rebuild. So, America came to their aid. And this is how the dollar became the world’s default currency.

In 1944, forty-four countries signed an agreement with the United States at the Bretton Woods Conference in the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire. This is when the dollar virtually became an international currency when global currencies were pegged to the US Dollar and the dollar was pegged to gold. At the time, the fixed rate was $35 per ounce.

The International Money Fund (IMF) was also established during this meeting in order to monitor exchange rates. They were also able to give short-term loans to countries in crisis. The World Bank was also created to give long-term loans for rebuilding the war-torn countries whose infrastructure was destroyed. 

There was a bitter battle between Britain's brilliant economist John Maynard Keynes and the stern Harry Dexter White who was representing the United States. Keynes wanted a global currency, Bancor, so no global nation could rule international trade. He also wanted it to be created so that any economic imbalance between countries could be rectified. He was a One World Order Liberal before his time.

Mr. White flat refused to agree to that plan. It helped his leveraging power since America was in the cat-bird seat. The United States possessed the vast majority of the post-war manufacturing prowess and it also held the majority of the gold reserves in the world, while on the other hand, England was bankrupt. White won and the debtor nations were required to balance their own trade in order to stabilize their nation's economy.

The dollar sustained this global lustre until Democrat Pres. Lyndon B Johnson implemented his outrageously expensive  “Great Society” programs in the 1960s, which only amplified the expense incurred by taxpayers under Democrat Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's implementation in 1933 of his expensive social programs titled, The New Deal.

As a result, by the 1970s America’s gold reserve had been depleted by half. So much so that France’s President De Gaulle sent ships loaded with US dollars to New York. in order to exchange them for physical gold. Everyone panicked. In 1971, the USA reported its first trade deficit of the 20th Century.

In August of 1971, Nixon announced a "temporary" protectionist measure to stop our gold reserves from dwindling further. But, by 1973, it had become permanent. The dollar was no longer backed by gold, but the government knew it needed something to back it up with.

After the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 it became obvious that oil was of more value than gold when it came to driving the global economy. In 1974, Secretary of the Treasury, William Simon, signed the Petrodollar Pact with Saudi Arabia. They agreed to buy and sell all oil exports with U.S dollars in exchange for weaponry and military protection while reinvesting their profits in US Treasury Bonds. This gave the US government cheap loans to support its "Great Society” spending spree.

Over the last 50 years, and up until recently, this has been the standard operating procedure. Unfortunately, today, there is a global move afoot to dissolve the US dollar/oil connection and China and Russia are behind most of this unprecedented effort.

In 2026, 20% of global oil trade was moved to other currencies. Most of our most unfriendly nations, particularly Russia (which shifted 95% of their trade to other currencies) are moving away from the dollar and towards the Chinese Petroyuan.

If this trend continues unabated, the United States will suffer severe inflation, a weakened dollar, spiking interest rates and the Federal debt will become unsustainable. And who will bear the brunt of this crisis? Yes! Generations and generations and generations of US taxpayers who will never attain the standard of living achieved by their parents and grandparents.

And why? because the Democrat politicians have sold us out! And alarmingly, we are now beginning to suffer with those outcomes.

So, save yourself, and your family, from the financial apocalypse that sits just over the horizon. Stack physical silver today, tomorrow and forever. It is your only guaranteed hedge against inflation and the economic malfunctions that are on their way to your doorstep. And, more importantly, it is your only hope of making it to the other side of this destructive paradigm in one piece.


Other Silver Shield Proof Round releases


Next
Next

The Holy Trinity: How Renaissance Masters Inspired a New Interpretation