Posted on 12/25/2014 1:52:04 PM PST by SatinDoll
Putin might “accidentally” drop some mines in the straits of hormuz. Some mines with the wrong return address.
Looks like the underlying source of this piece is Tyler Durden (my ass) at ZeroHedge, so, nah.
> “THE Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” This intriguing prediction is often heard in energy circles these days. If greens were the only people to be expressing such thoughts, the notion might be dismissed as Utopian. However, the quotation is from Sheikh Zaki Yamani, a Saudi Arabian who served as his country’s oil minister three decades ago.
http://www.economist.com/node/2155717
Gas price plunge threatens fuel-cell and electric cars
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3240898/posts
Have a Guinness!
Cheap oil benefits the vast majority of humans. The Saudi royal family may find themselves in a pinch: if they can't afford to keep up the handouts, they may be overthrown by the true-believer Islamic fundamentalists their great-grandparents were.
Tough cookies for them, but for us, what's the big deal? The current Saudi government is as near ISIS as makes no difference. Give them a funeral and cut a deal, if we want to, with the replacements, or let them fall back into dung-burning primitivism.
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy. That enemy is Iran. This OPEC move is a Saudi attack on Iran and Russia. Any damage done to US fracking is incidental. If Iran gets their nuke, their first move will be to shut down all Saudi oil exports”
I agree with your analysis. There is more visceral hatred within the Islamic community to each other than people realize
The decrease in oil will help jump start the world's economies and greatly reduce prices across the board. Areas involved with oil production will have issues, though.
In the end, demand reduction coupled with our fracking boom is what destroyed OPEC and deflated enviro-wackos’ egos for the non-cost effective energy alternatives.
This article could have gotten the message across with 20% of the words used.
Only if the decrease spending. Their 2015 budget has an increase in soending. They are tapping into their reserves, and that’s at $60 oil much less $20 oil. It doesnt really matter. The cure for low oil prices is low oil prices. Want $20 oil now? Then we’ll be buying it for $120 in a year or two
Ping.
Thought you two would like to read this. It doesn’t get a lot of interest from Freepers, but the readers of RIM and those on ZeroHedge were very concerned.
There are a lot of big players upset about the Saudis actions here. Iran's first nuke may not be pointed at Israel when it launches. As for the Russians, some of their warheads may not be properly accounted for. That Saudi oil would not be worth .20 cents a barrel if it becomes irradiated overnight.
As terrible as the prospect of feeling the full brunt of the depression that we've seen signs of coming the past 6 years would be, it is far worse for other nations. Worse, they value human life far less than we do and would be less hesitant to embrace extreme solutions.
Interestingly enough, I found an article that supports my own speculation at this (safe) link:
The GDP is about as reliable as any other government statistic. Oil prices have been artificially high for a decade and if nothing else, the lower prices will free up some money for investment in other sectors. The pie-in-the-sky and the sky-is-falling crowds both assume too much stasis. There are many new opportunities and Americans are still in the forefront of developing them—despite our government.
Very, VERY interesting article. The House of Saud is in a quandary, but Hell, they’ve been there before.
Their investment banker in the USA back in the late 60s and into the late 70s was a Jew married to a Lebanese Muslim. He used to call his wife, “my wild Arab.”
The Saudis are nothing, if not, practical. I suspect in the end they will be bombed into oblivion by the Persians.
The Turks will bomb the Persians into nothing - Iran is held together by terror wielded by the Persians (who make up less than 50% of the population), and the Turks themselves will be obliterated by the Russians.
I suspect after the radioactive dust settles the Muslims here in the US won’t be rattling any sabers, but that’s just may guess.
I’m all for an overhaul of our tax system, and that requires bringing back tariffs.
Screw free-traders. Americans have suffered enough because of that silliness.
Love the Automatic Earth blog.
They aggregate a lot of media about energy/finance but the main bloggers there also have original content that is quite insightful.
Thanks for posting
The only downside is if we fritter away all that cheap available energy buying plastic baubles from China and driving around in circles (because we can) instead of ramping up our own industry, infrastructure and means of production in general.
Which we are very likely to do.
I don’t know enough to comment on your seemingly plausible scenario.
What I do think I know is that Putin won’t sit on his thumb while the Saudi royal swinery pushes Russia toward economic ruin.
He will view such policies as an act of war and will respond accordingly, as any imperialist despot would do.
+5% GDP growth is not something to believe or not. It's a fact. Which doesn't mean that US economy is doing so great. Q4 will very likely fall to 3.5-3.8%. You just need to put together a bunch of other indicators and components to see the whole picture. BEA stats don't lie just BLS doesn't lie with total unemployment rate but once the participation rate, involuntary part-time employment etc. are added, It is still far from really good.
If oil really goes down to $20 a barrel (which I doubt - It will rather stay at around $50, which is much more “normal” than those crazy +$100 prices) that could make sense. Besides, I'm sure there are many other “tools” that could make the fracking going even with very low oil prices.
You’re welcome.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.