So the dollar started to devalue as a result of what Nixon said.

If you actually look at it between 71 and 74,

the dollar lost half its value against the mark, the German mark.

That just gives you an idea of like how weak the dollar got.

We had crazy inflation in the United States.

Now, you know, Nixon at the time in Kissinger,

they had to figure out a way to like stop this collapse of the dollar.

So they were like, how can we get other nations

to start propping up our currency again?

So they hired a guy off Wall Street, William Simon.

He was a bond salesman because they needed to sell bonds.

And they hired him and he became Treasury Secretary.

And they were like, well, who's going to buy our bonds?

Who's got a lot of money?

The Arabs, the Saudis.

They had just been the beneficiary of a big political transformation

where energy and oil, the lifeblood of our world,

was run and controlled by Western corporations for a long time.

Right, the Seven Sisters.

Okay, well, after the 60s, there was decolonization and nationalization.

And these Arab countries took control.

So the OPEC nations now controlled the economic lifeblood of the world.

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