Global demand for the US dollar keeps inflation low, while allowing the US to “print” its way out of trouble. Faced with a more than $18 trillion national debt – one can see how calamitous an un-pegging of the US dollar to oil would be for the US economy. Yes, think a Weimar Germany-esq hyper-inflationary environment. It also goes along way to explain how countries that have attempted to move away from the petrodollar – Iran, Venezuela, North Korea – have been labeled as enemies of the United States.