Before the emergence of the welfare state, some help was available for those in need – real need. It was provided voluntarily by charitable people and organizations. This was one of the many attributes of what we now fondly refer to as “civil society”.

On the face of it, the most striking thing about French economist Pascal Salin, is that he made it to the top of his profession at such a very young age.

I recall an aged professor, from a long time ago, solemnly telling us that the days when a man could start out life with a few dollars in his pocket and single-handedly turn it into millions were over.

The following story is told for purely selfish reasons. 

The purpose is to illustrate and share the misery which so many students of economics have to endure.

What’s clear from Obama’s recent State of the Union speech is that nothing is going to change.

Traditionally speaking, and legally speaking, there are three main ways of becoming very rich.

So many authors have described writing a book as a process. This process goes through some or all of the following stages. It starts as a nice idea and a few lines are penned. As more are added it turns into a hobby – a kind of leisure interest which you look forward to and enjoy. As time passes and the thing gets hold it becomes like a secret that’s all yours. 

I remember as a kid of ten or eleven, reading a news item about another kid who was about the same age as me. At school, the day before, he had been running around the playground at breaktime. A lead roof tile from the main school building had been loosened by the wind. It flew off and struck the boy on the head.

Last weekend, yet another hugely expensive “climate change” conference was held in Doha, Qatar. Almost predictably, it came to an end in a manner which was both confused and inconsequential. 

November 2012 has drawn to a close. 

One last thought before we brace ourselves for what’s to come.

It’s taken a week for the election result to finally sink in. 

As a foreigner, living far away from it all, I thought it gave me a better prospective. But I got it completely wrong. As did many others – even the “experts”. 

At some point in the next two or three days, I’m going to switch off my mobile, hang a “do not disturb” sign outside my door, and then hole up in front of my TV with a few crates of beer. 

Election 2012 is drawing to a close. The finishing line is in sight.

And not before time.

The petrodollar story has a little bit of everything. Hope, ambition, political intrigue, mystery, treachery, greed, deceit, betrayal, despair, poverty, envy, wealth, frustration, anger, courage, rage, conflict, revenge, retribution and more and more and on and on it goes ….

Let’s pick up where we left off at the end of Part 2. 

In the first half of the 1980s the USD appreciated to the point where American exporters were having a very hard time of it. The driving forces behind the over-strong dollar were the petrodollar system itself and high interest rates.