There is a temptation when thinking about a big number to just think of it as BIG. This is almost always a mistake. Even when dealing with big numbers, size matters.
"'The amount of oil OPEC sells on the world market is somewhere around $1.5 billion per day,' said Jeffrey Currie, the head of commodity research at Goldman Sachs in London.
'Compare that, he said, to the more than $3 trillion that change hands in currency markets every day.'
'You're talking about a value that's just too small to show up on the radar screen,' said Currie. 'It isn't enough to materially change the currency markets.'"
Personally, I don't know if Mr. Currie is 100% right. There is something to the influence of the marginal agent. Still, I aplaud his sense of perspective, and my guess is that he is at least 95% right.
Petrocrats are almost certainly to be stuck with the dollar for a very long time to come --- no matter what the charming Mr. Chavez says.