The Dollar Has Claws

We never know exactly what History has in mind; but we doubt she intends to Make America Great Again by acts of violence and over-spending led by the numbskulls in Washington.

Friday, December 9^th, 2026

Bill Bonner, from Baltimore, Maryland

It is a world red in tooth and claw, says Miller. Or, as Thucydides put it: the strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must.

Karl Rove saw this world taking shape during the Iraq War:

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

But ‘history’s actors’ are just that — actors, not playwrights. The real drama is much deeper and more complex, with civilization, the Ten Commandments, do unto others, the rule of law and due process to restrain knuckleheads like Miller.

But it’s not a story of uninterrupted progress. And when an empire needs to be brought to heel, History unleashes Trump, Miller, Hegseth et al to do the job. They pronounce the words given to them. They read the script faithfully. But these are just poor players, walking shadows who strut and fret for their hour upon the stage.

They think they are calling the shots themselves. But they do not develop the plot line on their own. They do as History commands – taking off the seat belts and stepping on the gas.

Trump accused Maduro of being a ‘narco-trafficker.’ He said he was running a major criminal cartel called the Cartel de los Soles. And then he sent in his midnight strike force. It was right out of a novel...or a bad movie.

And now, Maduro is being tried as a drug kingpin. But drugs had little to do with his downfall. He was double-crossed by his lieutenants who saw their own opportunity to strut their stuff. AP:

How Delcy Rodríguez courted Donald Trump and rose to power in Venezuela

There were probably plenty of ‘reasons’ for the US kidnapping of Maduro and his wife. Vanity. Glory. Greed. US elites looked forward to looting Venezuelan riches...such as they are. The Trump team, meanwhile, enjoys the warm light...like the gaslights of a 19th century stage ...of yet another triumph.

It is doubtful if Donald Trump takes much time to think through the ‘reasons’ very carefully. He’s a man of action, not reflection. Butt if he did, he’d see, for example, that that the storied ‘oil riches’ probably aren’t as rich as people think. The trouble with Venezuelan oil is that it is more expensive to pump and more expensive to refine than ‘light’ crude from Saudi Arabia. Trump wants lower oil prices, but the lower the price, the less the heavy goo from the Orinoco deposits is worth.

The deep thinkers in the Trump circle, if there are any, must have considered these things. Our guess is that they are focused, not on the oil itself, but on the money that buys it.

You’ll recall that in 2000, Saddam Hussein began offering Iraqi oil in exchange for euros. The US trumped up a ‘weapons of mass destruction’ charge soon after; Saddam was executed in 2006.

This time, Venezuelan oil exports were sanctioned by the US. Oilprice.com:

Before the first round of economic and financial sanctions hit in 2017, the U.S. took almost 800,000 barrels per day from Venezuela. This figure went all the way down to zero in 2019, with the highest level of restrictions known as “maximum pressure.” This happened again in May of this year [2025], as Chevron, Repsol and others were blocked by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

This left China as the only customer, openly and flagrantly buying Venezuelan oil...and paying in yuan. And now, the US Deep State appears to be giving the orders, speaking through Donald J. Trump and his Vichy Venezuelan collaborators. Their aim is not to cut China off from oil (that would be impossible)...but to force the oil market to stick with the dollar. ABC News:

Trump demands Venezuela kick out China and Russia, partner only with US on oil

Back in the 20th century, people were eager to be a part of the great US dollar-based empire. Today, other nations need to be whipped and beaten to force them to stick with the dollar. The ‘exorbitant privilege’ that the US enjoyed since 1945 — in which everyone had to buy and sell oil in dollars — may be coming to an end.

Of course, we never know exactly what History has in mind; but we doubt she intends to Make America Great Again by acts of violence and over-spending led by the numbskulls in Washington.

Regards,

Bill Bonner

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