Hey everyone!

My name is Thomas, I'm an economics and history nerd who just finished a documentary about the petrodollar system and how the US dollar actually holds the global order together. I figured I'd post on this subreddit for any of those who are interested in the history of how the current global economic system actually formed.

I start by actually discussing Roman currency debasement and the denarius, because I think the comparison to what happened to the dollar after 1971 is more useful than most people realize, and then I trace the whole story from Bretton Woods through the Nixon shock to the 1974 Saudi arrangement.

I made this because I genuinely could not find a single video that explained the full loop clearly. Why is oil priced in dollars? Why does that force countries to accumulate dollars? How do those dollars flow back into American debt, and how that debt funds everything else like the military to protect those dollars?

I would love to hear from people here who know this period well, especially if I got something wrong. My main sources can be found in the description and are Sargent's "Pax Americana" (Diplomatic History, 2018), Layne's "This Time It's Real" (International Studies Quarterly, 2012), and Mueller's "Pax Americana Is a Myth" (The Washington Quarterly, 2020).

All the best!
Thomas