Oil, Dollars, and the Gulf: Energy Economics, Petrodollar Geopolitics, Reshaping of Global Power

The dollar doesn't just happen to be the world's reserve currency. It was built on oil. In 1974, Henry Kissinger secured the arrangement that has defined the next half-century: Saudi Arabia prices oil in dollars, surplus petrodollars recycle through U.S. Treasuries, and America provides Gulf security in return. That system is now under pressure from every direction. MBA 530 gives you the analytical framework to understand why. Drawing on Austrian and Chicago school economics - Hayek, Mises, Friedman, Sowell - this course-in-a-book traces the petrodollar architecture from its 1971 origins through OPEC cartel mechanics, the U.S. shale revolution, China's yuan-denominated oil ambitions, Russian sanctions evasion, and the BRICS dedollarization push. You will learn to read an oil price move the way a monetary economist reads it: as a signal about capital, currency, and geopolitical credibility - not just barrels. For MBA students, investment professionals, policy analysts, and serious readers who want to understand the master variable of the global economy.