Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Interview with Chris Cook, who designed and built the Iranian Oil Bourse (see Wikipedia for a timeline of the events Chris describes - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_oil_bourse), which could help move the world away from the petrodollar. We’ll be talking more about that later.
I’ve been working with Chris on a mutual credit idea, and he’s got lots of interesting things to say, so I thought I’d interview him about his views on the new economy, and how we get there. However, that will have to happen another time, as this one turned into a romp through the last 50 years’ of global energy shenanigans, from an insider’s perspective. It includes fascinating insights, and is well worth a listen / read. So get Wikipedia ready and off we go.
Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/chris-cook-oil-markets-from-nixon-to-trump
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.
Here’s what we mean by new economy - lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/new-economy
Lowimpact.org: lowimpact.org
Chris on Bella Caledonia: bellacaledonia.org.uk/contributor/chris-cook
John Perkins - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
Thanks also to the Open Co-op: https://open.coop/
Highlights
1. (the US went) round to different countries, lending people dollars on a massive scale, particularly in Latin America. This puts people in hock, to you. They create the dollars through loans. That’s how money is created, which isn’t widely understood. The Chinese are doing exactly the same thing now – it’s economic colonialism. The British did it. Everybody tries to do it.
2. In 2007 I believe the Chinese said to the US: ‘If you continue what you’re doing in Iraq, we’re going to pull the plug on the dollar.’ They would have sold the dollar colossally. At that point, the US announced that they would pull out, and that other countries apart from the US would get oil development. It blew out of the water any chance of the US getting first go at all the low-cost oil.
3. But what the Chinese don’t have that the US did, is the military muscle to go in and enforce the debts. So that’s the realpolitik. If you didn’t pay your debts to Britain in the empire days, they would take your country away from you. US, the same. But China doesn’t have that ability, and I don’t believe they ever will have.
4. Kissinger went to the Shah of Iran (in 1973), who was the boss man in the oil market then, and told him to keep the oil price at $12. The Shah didn’t understand why, but Sheikh Yamani (Saudi Arabia) did. The reason was that at $3 per barrel, it was impossible to finance North Sea oil, Alaskan oil, US Gulf oil. At $12 they could, and they did. The petrodollars from the high prices funded it.
Interview with Chris Cook, who designed and built the Iranian Oil Bourse (see Wikipedia for a timeline of the events Chris describes - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_oil_bourse), which could help move the world away from the petrodollar. We’ll be talking more about that later.
I’ve been working with Chris on a mutual credit idea, and he’s got lots of interesting things to say, so I thought I’d interview him about his views on the new economy, and how we get there. However, that will have to happen another time, as this one turned into a romp through the last 50 years’ of global energy shenanigans, from an insider’s perspective. It includes fascinating insights, and is well worth a listen / read. So get Wikipedia ready and off we go.
Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/chris-cook-oil-markets-from-nixon-to-trump
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.
Here’s what we mean by new economy - lowimpact.org/lowimpact-topic/new-economy
Lowimpact.org: lowimpact.org
Chris on Bella Caledonia: bellacaledonia.org.uk/contributor/chris-cook
John Perkins - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
Thanks also to the Open Co-op: https://open.coop/
Highlights
1. (the US went) round to different countries, lending people dollars on a massive scale, particularly in Latin America. This puts people in hock, to you. They create the dollars through loans. That’s how money is created, which isn’t widely understood. The Chinese are doing exactly the same thing now – it’s economic colonialism. The British did it. Everybody tries to do it.
2. In 2007 I believe the Chinese said to the US: ‘If you continue what you’re doing in Iraq, we’re going to pull the plug on the dollar.’ They would have sold the dollar colossally. At that point, the US announced that they would pull out, and that other countries apart from the US would get oil development. It blew out of the water any chance of the US getting first go at all the low-cost oil.
3. But what the Chinese don’t have that the US did, is the military muscle to go in and enforce the debts. So that’s the realpolitik. If you didn’t pay your debts to Britain in the empire days, they would take your country away from you. US, the same. But China doesn’t have that ability, and I don’t believe they ever will have.
4. Kissinger went to the Shah of Iran (in 1973), who was the boss man in the oil market then, and told him to keep the oil price at $12. The Shah didn’t understand why, but Sheikh Yamani (Saudi Arabia) did. The reason was that at $3 per barrel, it was impossible to finance North Sea oil, Alaskan oil, US Gulf oil. At $12 they could, and they did. The petrodollars from the high prices funded it.
