Hidden Hand of American Hegemony

Between 1973 and 1980, the cost of crude oil rose suddenly and dramatically, precipitating convulsions in international politics. Conventional wisdom holds that international capital markets adjusted automatically and remarkably well: enormous amounts of money flowed into oil-rich states, and efficient markets then placed that new money in cash-poor Third World economies. David Spiro has followed the money trail, and the story he tells contradicts the accepted beliefs. Most of the sudden flush of new oil wealth didn't go to poor oil-importing countries around the globe. Instead, the United States made a deal with Saudi Arabia to sell it U.S. securities in secret, a deal resulting in a substantial portion of Saudi assets being held by the U.S. government. With this arrangement, the U.S. government violated its agreements with allies in the developed world. Spiro argues that American policymakers took this action to prop up otherwise intolerable levels of U.S. public debt. In effect, recycled OPEC wealth subsidized the debt-happy policies of the U.S. government as well as the debt-happy consumption of its citizenry.

The book provides a good panorama of the global situation after OPEC increased the price of oil in the early 1970s. No previous knowledge of the issue is required, as it is very well explained and the book is well organized. In addition it looks not only at the protagonist countries, the USA and Saudi Arabia, but also includes all the surrounding political actors, and the role they played regarding their own interests., This study... makes a significant contribution to the literature of international political economy. The book also is a useful point of departure for further exploration by historians of finance, economics, and business. The data on capital flows alone constitute a valuable resource for all analysts.... The book is closely argued within the author's established methodological framework. It engages the reader in lively argument.

An international business consultant, David E. Spiro has taught political economy at Brandeis, Columbia, and Harvard universities.