Without a single shot

I remember, a couple of years ago, when I came back from dinner with an economist fired of mine who'd scared the willies out of me talking about how easy it would be for the developing nations to launch an economic war on the US and how utterly defenseless we'd be. But my economist friend was an alarmist by nature and, after a few weeks, it was easy to dismiss his ravings about international currency exchange.

But now, this story: OPEC to Consider Non-Dollar Reserves (which, by the way, received little to no coverage by the mainstream media).

What if, let's just say, a couple of nations like, maybe, Iran and Venezuela for example, were feeling threatened by George Bush and the United States? What could they do? Launch a military attack on the US? Not likely. But they might be able to convince the OPEC oil ministers that "They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper," in the form of US dollars.

And what would happen then if OPEC decides that henceforth it will only accept Euros in payment for oil. Probably nothing. In fact not a problem at all. Just as long as long as my employer also agrees to pay me in Euros instead of worthless pieces of paper.

But I'd still get paid in US Dollars, of course. And the US would be brought to its knees without a single shot fired.