From Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Investment Strategist, Casey Research:

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran's oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles.

But that line doesn't make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated, and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the U.S. either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the U.S. dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil... And from that monopoly on, the all-important oil trade, the U.S. dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for U.S. dollars ensued, pushing the dollar's value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess U.S. dollars savings in U.S. Treasurys, giving the U.S. government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

We know where that situation led...

Read full article...

More on the "End of America":

The great Richard Russell issues a super-bearish warning

Shocking gold story suggests the "End of America" has begun

Porter Stansberry: What every American needs to know about gold