How the US Dollar Became a WMD (Breaking History this week)

In this week’s episode of Breaking History, Gordon and I answer the question: “how did the US dollar become a weapon of mass destruction?”

This journey takes us through an elaboration of the origins of the petro dollar, the corruption and destruction of the Bretton Woods gold reserve system in 1971, and the transformation of America’s identity from a producer society shaped by an orientation towards scientific progress (which valued the liberation of oppressed nations from systems of imperialism)- into a new type of society founded upon extraction, pillage, speculation and usury.

This corruption of economic thinking domestically, and foreign policy abroad, accompanied a corruption in the morals of society as a consumer society ethos was embraced domestically which sought pleasures in the moment rather than consider the past or future consequences of our actions.

As always, Gordon sheds light on the often overlooked dynamics within Saudi Arabia with a focus on the subversion of the pro-industrial leadership during the 1970s and the rise of Islamist movements sponsored by the CIA.

How the BRICS+ have managed to set the stage for an alternative system of value more reflective of the sanest expressions of America’s pre-consumer society ethos is also discussed at some length.