Petrodollar Collapse: What Happens When Oil Drops the Dollar

In 1974, the United States and Saudi Arabia struck an arrangement that would quietly govern the global economy for half a century: oil would be priced and sold in dollars, and in exchange, Washington would guarantee Gulf security. The petrodollar system was never formalized in a treaty, never voted on by any legislature, and never explained to the billions of people whose lives it shaped. It simpl...