Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson: Oil Prices SKYROCKET w/ Persian Gulf Blockade –Who Gets Hit Hardest?

Michael Hudson argues that the US and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran to prevent an imminent peace agreement where Iran would significantly curb its uranium enrichment. This agreement would have exposed the US/Israeli narrative that Iran was pursuing an atomic bomb, which was the stated justification for military action. The true aim, according to Hudson, was regime change to control Iran's oil resources.

Iran has made unprecedented agreements with to surrender to the American position in order to avoid war... that would have destroyed the whole lie that justified the American attack on Iran. The real aim never was to stop Iran from having an atom bomb because Iran never was running the policy of getting an atom bomb. The immediate aim was exactly what Donald Trump has said. It was regime change. We want a regime change.

Iran responded to the attacks by targeting US military bases in allied Arab countries and blowing up LNG refineries in Bahrain and other nations. This retaliation immediately caused a 20% surge in European gas prices and significant stock market drops in countries like Korea, demonstrating the global economic impact of the conflict.

Iran followed up by blowing up the gas refineries... Within one day, the price of gas in Europe jumped 20%... And yesterday the Korean stock market plunged by almost 80 80%.

Hudson asserts that US foreign policy since 1974 has centered on controlling the world's oil trade. This involves ensuring OPEC countries price oil in dollars and deposit their surplus earnings in US banks and securities, thereby buttressing the dollar's global role. US interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, and Ukraine are framed as efforts to prevent countries from de-dollarizing their oil trade.

Saudi Arabia and the other OPEC countries made in 1974 that they were told they can charge whatever they want for their oil, but they have to price their oil in dollars and they have to keep all of the savings from their oil exports in the United States. Venezuela said, 'We're going to begin pricing Venezuelan oil in Chinese currency...'

Richard Wolff describes Israel's role as the US's 'landed aircraft carrier' and military arm in the Middle East, tasked with preventing regional sovereignty that challenges US interests. He argues that Israel's settler colonialism project is historically outdated in an anti-colonial era, leading to more desperate and horrific actions.

Israel's our landed aircraft carrier there to make sure that there's no regime that's going to emerge that breaks the basic agreement... Israel is trying to undertake what is called in history settler colonialism... the settler colonialism that you could undertake and achieve then is a completely different proposition now.

Both speakers contend that current US foreign policy, particularly military interventions, reflects a desperate attempt to slow the decline of the American empire. Richard Wolff highlights the domestic economic unsustainability, pointing to a military budget projected to reach $1.5 trillion, a national debt exceeding 120% of GDP, and shrinking international willingness to buy US debt, which will necessitate higher interest rates or cuts to social programs.

This is the policy of a dying empire. Our current budget for war... is about $900 billion... Mr. Trump indicated he wanted to increase that in next year's budget to $1.5 trillion. Our debt crossed 120% of our GDP which is usually a warning sign that you got a problem here.