This news is a few days old, but I just came across it, so please forgive me if it has already been posted. It has not been discussed or reported in our news. Here are two articles, the first is from a Russian newspaper RIA Novosti:
"TEHRAN, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has stopped selling its oil for U.S. dollars, the Iranian ISNA news agency said on Saturday, citing the country's oil minister.
"In line with a policy of selling crude oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, the sale of our country's oil in U.S. dollars has been completely eliminated," ISNA reported Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari as saying.
He also said "the dollar is no longer a reliable currency."
Iran is the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer.
At a November summit of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries heads of state, Iran proposed that oil sales be carried for a variety of currencies, excluding dollars, but was not supported by any other members except Venezuela.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously called the U.S. currency a "worthless piece of paper."
2007 has seen a significant fall in the value of the U.S dollar against other major world currencies."
More:
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071208/91488137.htmlThe second article, from Press TV, is more indepth as to why the dollar has dropped and that Iran has stopped accepting U.S. dollars. Others may follow suit.
Dollar, yen or Euro?
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:55:52
By Paul Craig Roberts
"On December 8, Chinese and French news services reported that Iran had stopped billing its oil exports in dollars.
Americans might never hear this news as the independence of the US media was destroyed in the 1990s when Rupert Murdoch persuaded the Clinton administration and the quislings in Congress to allow the US media to be monopolized by a few mega-corporations.
Iran's oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, declared: "The dollar is an unreliable currency in regards to its devaluation and the loss oil exporters have endured from this trend."
Iran has proposed to OPEC that the US dollar no longer be used by any oil exporting countries. As the oil emirates and the Saudis have already decided to reduce their holdings of US dollars, the US might actually find itself having to pay for its energy imports in euros or yen.
Venezuela's Chavez, survivor of a US-led coup against him and a likely target of a US assassination attempt, might follow the Iranian lead. Also, Russia's Putin, who is fed up with the US government's efforts to encircle Russia militarily, will be tempted to add Russia's oil exports to the symbolic assault on the dollar.
The assault is symbolic, because the dollar is not the reserve currency due to oil exports being billed in dollars. It's the other way around. Oil exports are billed in dollars, because the dollar is the reserve currency. "
More:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=35109§ionid=3510304
Economically the U.S is in a bad situation. In my opinion, we must create a new market and industry for energy independance. We must have change in how the U.S. does business around the world. We must pull together, get creative, use this opportunity for growth. Corporations that are created in the U.S. need to stay in the U.S., they need to stop giving our jobs to other countrys.