THIS IS HUGE AND THE PRESS HASN’T DONE MUCH MORE THAN YAWN: So Long, Petrodollar: US-Saudi Arabian Agreement Ends After Fifty Years.

The petrodollar — a deal, not a currency — was born out of the late 1970s energy crisis. The United States, having just gone off the gold standard, struck a deal with Saudi Arabia — one of the largest producers of petroleum in the world — that meant the Saudis would price their oil exclusively in United States dollars and that any surplus revenues from their sales of petroleum would be invested in U.S. Treasury bonds. This had several effects: It ensured the U.S. a supply of oil, it established the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency, and it helped the U.S. maintain what was, by today’s standards, its modest federal debt.

Those benefits are gone now.

If there is any remaining political, social, economic, or physical capital that the last generation of political leadership hasn’t frittered away, just give them another four years.