In 2025, the world bought $3 [music]

trillion worth of oil.

Almost all of it was paid in one

currency. Not because it was the

strongest [music] or most stable, but

because of a secret deal made in a Saudi

desert in 1974.

It's called the petrodollar, the most

powerful [music] financial system you've

never been taught.

August 15th, 1971.

President Richard Nixon walks onto

television and said, "I have directed

Secretary Connally to suspend

temporarily the convertibility of the

dollar into gold."

Here's what happened.

>> [music]

>> Since the end of World War II, the

dollar had been backed by gold under a

system called Bretton Woods.

Any country holding dollars could knock

on America's door and say, [music]

"I'd like my gold, please."

Of course, right this way.

That arrangement made the dollar the

most trusted currency on Earth.

But America had been printing far more

dollars than it had gold to back them,

funding wars, social programs, and Cold

War spending.

Countries noticed, and one by one, they

started showing up at America's door,

demanding their gold back. So, Nixon

slammed the window shut. No more gold

for dollars.

The dollar was now backed by nothing.

>> Huh? Just trust. And trust was not

exactly trusted.

Then, things got worse.

October 1973.

Egypt and Syria launched a surprise

attack on Israel, the Yom Kippur [music]

War.

The United States backed Israel with a

massive airlift of weapons.

In response, Arab oil producers, OPEC,

hit America with the most powerful

weapon they had,

oil.

They slashed production. They embargoed

the United States, and the price of oil

exploded. From about $3 a barrel to

nearly $12.

Gas stations ran dry, lines stretched

for blocks.

"Sorry, no gas today" was [music] the

standard operating procedure. So, now

America had a currency with no gold

behind it. Inflation getting ugly

[music]

and the world's most important commodity

being used like a weapon.

Not ideal.

America needed a new plan. [music]

A new anchor for the dollar.

Something every country needs.

Something so essential the whole world

[music] would have no choice but to keep

using US dollars.

Enter

>> [music]

>> Henry Kissinger,

the Secretary of State.

He went to Saudi Arabia with a deal.

Your majesty, you are sitting on the

largest pool of oil on earth,

>> [music]

>> which is wonderful. Unfortunately, it

also means you are sitting in the middle

of the desert wearing [music] a giant

sign that says, "Please invade me."

So, let us make a deal. You sell your

oil in US dollars. You invest the extra

money back into US Treasury bonds and in

return we keep [music] you safe. We sell

you the weapons. We protect the oil

fields and anyone thinking of touching

Saudi Arabia will have to deal with us

first.

In 1974, Saudi Arabia agreed. And within

a year, the rest of the smaller OPEC

members followed. [music]

So, now if any country wanted oil, it

first needed dollars.

Voilà. The petrodollar was created.

But the real genius of the system wasn't

just that oil was sold in dollars.

It was what happened to those dollars

after.

>> [music]

>> Here's how the petrodollar actually

works. Three things. First, oil is

priced in dollars.

As we previously mentioned, that means

if any country wants oil,

>> [music]

>> which unfortunately for them they do, it

first needs US dollars.

Japan wants oil?

Dollars. Germany wants oil?

Dollars.

So, with one rule, America created

constant global demand for its currency.

Second, oil exporters now receive giant

piles of dollars.

And countries like Saudi Arabia [music]

suddenly had a problem that I wish I

had.

We have more dollars than things to

spend them on.

We could sell huge amounts of oil, but

we couldn't possibly spend all that

money at home. So, the extra

[clears throat] dollars had to go

somewhere.

And where did they go? Right back to

America, into US Treasury bonds, into

American banks, into US financial

markets.

This became known as petrodollar

recycling.

Not exactly the kind of recycling that

saves the planet.

Third,

America then used that recycled money to

fund itself.

It helped finance government spending.

It kept demand for US debt high. It

helped keep interest rates lower.

Thus funds the military that protects

the oil fields that keep the oil flowing

and the cycle going.

See what happened?

It's a loop. America doesn't even need

to sell the oil. Just needs the world to

keep using dollars to buy them.

But there's one final piece of the

puzzle. One thing that historians,

economists, and geopolitical analysts

all agree is essential to keep this

system alive. It is Incogni.

Just kidding.

But seriously, right now data brokers

are collecting your name, your email,

your address, your phone number, and

selling it to whoever's buying. That's

how a bank calls you out of nowhere and

somehow knows everything about you.

And it gets [music] worse. You get a

text, a package can't be delivered. All

you have to do is click a link and

confirm your address. Simple, right?

You click it, but there was no package.

There was never a package. And now they

don't just have your data, they have

your device. You [music] could spend

months, sometimes years, cleaning up the

damage, or you could prevent it in

minutes with Incogni.

On my dashboard, you can see them

already [music] going after dozens of

brokers on my behalf, sending removal

requests, following up, and making sure

my info actually gets taken [music]

down.

But the real deal is the custom removal

feature on their unlimited and family

unlimited plans. If you find your info

on a specific sketchy site, you just

point Incogni's agents to that URL and

they manually remove it for you.

Go to incogni.com/crayoncapital

and use code crayoncapital for 60% off.

They can't harm you if they can't find

you.

That's incogni.com/crayoncapital.

Code crayoncapital for 60% off.

Link in the description.

Now, back to the dollar.

By the 1980s, this machine was in full

swing.

The dollar's share of global reserves

climbed to over 70%.

US Treasury bonds became the world's

favorite safe asset. Mhm. And American

financial markets became the center of

global capital.

America could borrow cheaply, run huge

[music] deficits, and print money while

pushing much of the inflation onto

everyone else.

Economists called it an exorbitant

privilege, which is just a polite way of

saying

legalized robbery.

But the most dangerous superpower?

Sanctions.

>> [music]

>> The dollar isn't just money, it's

infrastructure. Global trade, banking,

reserves, debt, payments. So much of it

runs through the dollar [music] system

that getting cut off from it is like

being kicked off the financial internet.

You're not just losing access to a

currency, but losing access to [music]

the grid. That makes sanctions

terrifying.

If America doesn't like what you're

doing, they can just make your economy

stop working.

And what about countries that try to

move away from the [music] dollar?

Well, this is where the story gets a

little uncomfortable.

In 2000, Saddam Hussein said Iraq would

start selling oil in euros instead of

dollars. Three years later, Iraq was

invaded. And after Saddam fell, Iraqi

oil sales returned [music] to dollars.

The leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi,

proposed a gold-backed African currency,

the gold dinar, to replace the dollar in

African oil trade. They held roughly 143

tons of gold to back [music] the plan.

Yet in 2011, NATO intervened. Gaddafi

was killed and the gold dinar plan died

with him.

Venezuela tried a different route. The

country's sitting on the largest proven

oil reserves on the planet, 303 billion

barrels.

In 2018, Maduro launched the Petro, a

crypto project meant to dodge sanctions

and sell outside the dollar system.

Despite the hype, it went nowhere.

Hardly anyone could actually use it.

>> Mhm.

>> But the defiance didn't go unnoticed.

The US

>> [music]

>> ramped up sanctions, blockaded

Venezuelan oil tankers, and in January

2026, launched a military operation that

captured Maduro himself.

At his press [music] conference, Trump

said the US plan to run Venezuela and

rebuild its oil infrastructure with

American companies.

The largest oil reserves on Earth were

back on the table.

Now, to be fair,

were these conflicts caused only by

challenging the dollar? Probably not.

Each one had its own mess of motives.

>> [music]

>> Weapons concerns, drug trafficking,

regional politics, humanitarian

arguments.

But the pattern is hard to ignore.

Challenge the empire and [music] the

empire strikes back.

For decades, nobody could really break

the dollar's grip.

But empires don't stay unchallenged

forever.

It started with a single move. In 2022,

after Russia invaded Ukraine, [music]

the United States froze nearly 300

billion dollars of Russia's foreign

reserves and cut major Russian banks

from the Swift payment system.

Overnight, decades of Russian savings

parked in the system they were told was

safe, became unreachable.

And yes, it hurt Russia, but it also

scared everyone else.

Every government holding dollars thinks

this money is only theirs as long as the

US says it is.

And that's when [music] the world

started moving together.

China started dumping US Treasuries,

reducing its holdings from a peak of

over 1.3 trillion [music] dollars to

roughly 600 billion.

It went on a years-long gold buying

spree instead.

Russia and China pushed more of their

trade into yuan and rubles.

Brazil and China struck deals to settle

trade in their own currencies.

India started paying for some Russian

oil in rupees. And Saudi Arabia, the

country that helped build the

petrodollar [music] system in the first

place, publicly said it was open to

trade in currencies other than the

dollar. [music]

The numbers tell the story.

The dollar's share of global reserves

has fallen from 72% in 2001 to under 58%

today.

Central banks worldwide are hoarding

gold at record levels, over 1,000 tons

added in 2024 alone.

The Chinese yuan now accounts for

[music] roughly 2% of global reserves.

Small, yes.

But it was essentially zero a decade

ago.

And then there's the bigger problem, the

end of oil itself.

One in four cars sold globally in

[music] 2025 is electric.

If the world becomes less dependent on

oil,

it becomes less dependent on the system

that requires dollars to buy oil.

Now, let's be clear. The petrodollar

machine still runs. The dollar still

dominates [music] 88% of foreign

exchange transactions and roughly half

of all global trade invoicing.

No single rival, yuan, euro, gold,

crypto, comes close to replacing it.

But for the first time in 50 years, the

machine has competition.

Not one giant challenger, [music]

a thousand small ones. As a wise saying

goes,

ape alone, weak. Apes together, strong.

What a wonderful day.

>> [music]

[music]