The hidden hand of American hegemony: petrodollar recycling and international markets

David E Spiro

Cornell University Press, 1999 - Business & Economics - 177 pages

"David Spiro has followed the money trail, and the story he tells, based on interviews and a painstaking accumulation of fragmentary evidence, contradicts the accepted beliefs both in the particulars and in broad outline. Most of the sudden flush of new oil wealth did not go to poor oil-importing countries around the globe. Instead the United States made a deal with Saudi Arabia to sell it U.S. securities in secret, a deal resulting in a substantial portion of Saudi assets being held by the U.S. government. With this arrangement, the U.S. government violated its agreements with allies in the developed world. Spiro argues that American policy makers took this action to prop up otherwise intolerable levels of U.S. public debt. In effect, recycled OPEC wealth subsidized the debt-happy policies of the U.S. government as well as the debt-happy consumerism of its citizenry."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents

• Explaining Petrodollar Recycling i: 1
• Denning the Principles of Allocation: 19
• Making Markets Work: 49
• The Failure of International Institutions: 87
• Competing for Capital: 107
• The Interpretation of Hegemony: 127
• Works Cited: 159
• Index: 169

About the author

David E. Spiro has taught political economy at Branders, Columbia, and Harvard universities.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The hidden hand of American hegemony: petrodollar recycling and international markets; Cornell studies in political economy
• Author: David E Spiro
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1999
• ISBN: 080142884X, 9780801428845
• Length: 177 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economic History; Business & Economics / Industries / General; Business & Economics / International / Economics; Business & Economics / International / General; Political Science / International Relations / General