<i>&quot;The Americans largely do the same (see how quickly the leader of an oil producing country is deposed is he declares to ditch the dollar). The Brits gave their empire to the Americans to piggy back off this.&quot;</i><p>This petrodollar conspiracy is baffling.<p>Countries don&#x27;t hold dollars primarily to buy oil.<p>The oil and gas industry is only about 4.6% to 6.5% of the global economy.<p>Countries hold reserve currencies to manage the exchange rate of their currency. Petrodollar conspiracists would be well served by learning about foreign exchange reserves.<p>See: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Foreign-exchange_reserves" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Foreign-exchange_reserves</a><p>And in any case, only 65% of foreign currency reserves are in the USD.<p>Furthermore, research shows that being the world&#x27;s primary reserve currency affords the United States negligible advantage: 0.3 to 0.5 percent of US GDP in a normal year.<p>See: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mckinsey.com&#x2F;insights&#x2F;economic_studies&#x2F;an_exorbitant_privilege" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mckinsey.com&#x2F;insights&#x2F;economic_studies&#x2F;an_exorbit...</a><p>Compare that to the costs of &quot;deposing the leader of an oil producing country&quot;: $6 trillion for the Iraq war or about 36% of GDP<p>See: 
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSB...</a>