This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Oil Price Blowback: Is Putin Creating A New World Order?
Submitted by Mike Whitney via Emerging Equity blog,
“If undercharging for energy products occurs deliberately, it also effects those who introduce these limitations. Problems will arise and grow, worsening the situation not only for Russia but also for our partners.” – Russian President Vladimir Putin
It’s hard to know which country is going to suffer the most from falling oil prices. Up to now, of course, Russia, Iran and Venezuela have taken the biggest hit, but that will probably change as time goes on. What the Obama administration should be worried about is the second-order effects that will eventually show up in terms of higher unemployment, market volatility, and wobbly bank balance sheets. That’s where the real damage is going to crop up because that’s where red ink and bad loans can metastasize into a full-blown financial crisis. Check out this blurb from Nick Cunningham at Oilprice.com and you’ll see what I mean:
“According to an assessment from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, an estimated 250,000 jobs across eight U.S. states could be lost in 2015 if oil prices don’t rise. More than 50 percent of those job losses would occur in Texas, which leads the nation in oil production.
There are some early signs that a slowdown in drilling could spread to the manufacturing sector in Texas… One executive at a metal manufacturing company said in the survey, “the drop in crude oil prices is going to make things ugly… quickly.” Another company that manufactures machinery told the Dallas Fed, “Low oil prices will drive reductions in U.S. drilling rigs, which will in turn reduce the market for our products.”
The sentiment was similar for a chemical manufacturer, who said “lower oil prices will adversely impact margins. Energy volatility will cause our customers to keep inventories tight.”
States like Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have seen their economies boom over the last few years as oil production surged. But the sector is now deflating, leaving gashes in employment rolls and state budgets.” (Low Prices Lead To Layoffs In The Oil Patch, Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com)
Of course industries lay-off workers all the time and it doesn’t always lead to a financial crisis. But unemployment is just one part of the picture, lower personal consumption is another. Take a look:
“Falling oil prices are a bigger drag on economic growth than the incremental “savings” received by the consumer…..Another way to show this graphically is to look at the annual changes in Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) in aggregate as compared to the subsection of PCE spent on energy and related products. This is shown in the chart below.
Lower Energy Prices To Lower PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures):
See? So despite what you might have read in the MSM, lower gas prices do not translate into greater personal consumption or more robust growth. Quiet the contrary, they tend to intensify deflationary pressures and reduce activity which is a damper on growth.
Then there’s the knock-on effects that crashing prices and layoffs have on other industries like mining, manufacturing and chemical production. Here’s more from Oil Price:
“Oil and gas production makeup a hefty chunk of the “mining and manufacturing” component of the employment rolls. Since 2000, when the oil price boom gained traction, Texas has comprised more than 40% of all jobs in the country according to first quarter data from the Dallas Federal Reserve…
The majority of the jobs “created” since the financial crisis have been lower wage paying jobs in retail, healthcare and other service sectors of the economy. Conversely, the jobs created within the energy space are some of the highest wage paying opportunities available in engineering, technology, accounting, legal, etc. In fact, each job created in energy related areas has had a “ripple effect” of creating 2.8 jobs elsewhere in the economy from piping to coatings, trucking and transportation, restaurants and retail….
The obvious ramification of the plunge in oil prices is that eventually the loss of revenue will lead to cuts in production, declines in capital expenditure plans (which comprise almost 1/4th of all capex expenditures in the S&P 500), freezes and/or reductions in employment, and declines in revenue and profitability…
Simply put, lower oil and gasoline prices may have a bigger detraction on the economy than the “savings” provided to consumers.” (The Gasoline Price Myth, Lance Roberts, oilprice.com)
None of this sounds very reassuring, does it? And yet, all we hear from the media is how the economy is going to reach “escape velocity” on the back of cheap oil. Nonsense. This is just more “green shoots” baloney wrapped in public relations hype. The fact is, the economy needs the good-paying jobs more than it needs low-priced energy. But now that prices are tumbling, those jobs are going to disappear which is going to be a drag on growth. Now check out these headlines I picked up on Google News that help to show what’s going on off the radar:
“Texas is in danger of a recession”, CNN Money.
“Texas Could Be Headed for an Oil-Fueled Recession, JP Morgan Economist Says”, Wall Street Journal “Good Times From Texas to North Dakota May Turn Bad on Oil-Price Drop”, Bloomberg
“Low Oil Prices in the New Year Are Screwing Petrostates”, Vice News
“Top US Oil States Are Taking A Hit From Plunging Crude Prices”, Business Insider
Get the picture? If oil prices continue to fall, unemployment is going to spike, activity is going to slow, and the economy is going tank. And the damage won’t be limited to the US either. Get a load of this from the UK Telegraph:
“A third of Britain’s listed oil and gas companies are in danger of running out of working capital and even going bankrupt amid a slump in the value of crude, according to new research.
Financial risk management group Company Watch believes that 70pc of the UK’s publicly listed oil exploration and production companies are now unprofitable, racking up significant losses in the region of £1.8bn.
Such is the extent of the financial pressure now bearing down on highly leveraged drillers in the UK that Company Watch estimates that a third of the 126 quoted oil and gas companies on AIM and the London Stock Exchange are generating no revenues.
The findings are the latest warning to hit the oil and gas industry since a slump in the price of crude accelerated in November when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) decided to keep its output levels unchanged. The decision has caused carnage in oil markets with a barrel of Brent crude falling 45pc since June to around $60 per barrel.” (Third of listed UK oil and gas drillers face bankruptcy, Telegraph)
“Carnage in oil markets,” you say?
Indeed. Many of the oil-drilling newcomers set up shop to take advantage of the low rates and easy money available in the bond market. Now that prices have crashed, investors are avoiding energy-related junk bonds like the plague which is making it impossible for the smaller companies to roll over their debt or attract fresh capital. When these companies start to default en masse, as they certainly will if prices don’t rebound, the blowback will be felt on bank balance sheets across the country creating the possibility of another financial meltdown. (Now we ARE talking about a financial crisis.)
The basic problem is that the banks have bundled a lot of their dodgy debt into financially-engineered products like Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) that will inevitably fail when borrowers are no longer able to service the loans. The rot can be concealed for a while, but eventually, if prices don’t recover, a significant number of these companies are going to go under which will push the perennially-undercapitalized banking system to the brink once again. That’s why Washington’s plan to push down oil prices (to hurt the Russian economy) might have made sense on a short-term basis (to shock Putin into submission) but as a long-term strategy, it’s nuts. And what’s even crazier, is that Obama has decided to double-down on the same wacky plan even though Putin hasn’t given an inch. Check this out from Reuters on Monday:
“The Obama administration has opened a new front in the global battle for oil market share, effectively clearing the way for the shipment of as much as a million barrels per day of ultra-light U.S. crude to the rest of the world…
The Department of Commerce on Tuesday ended a year-long silence on a contentious, four-decade ban on oil exports, saying it had begun approving a backlog of requests to sell processed light oil abroad.
The action comes at a critical juncture for the global oil market. World prices have halved to less than $60 a barrel since the summer as top exporter Saudi Arabia, once a staunch defender of $100 oil, refused to cut production in the face of surging U.S. shale output and tempered global demand…
With global oil markets in flux, it is far from clear how much U.S. condensate will find a market overseas.”
(Analysis – U.S. opening of oil export tap widens battle for global market, Reuters)
Does that make sense to you, dear reader? Why would Obama suddenly opt to change the rules of the game when he knows it will increase supply and push prices down even further? Why would he do that? Certainly, he doesn’t want to inflict more pain on domestic producers, does he?
Let’s let Obama answer the question for himself. Here’s a clip from an NPR interview with the president just last week. About halfway through the interview, NPR’s Steve Inskeep asks Obama: “Are you just lucky that the price of oil went down and therefore their currency collapsed or …is it something that you did?
Barack Obama: If you’ll recall, their (Russia) economy was already contracting and capital was fleeing even before oil collapsed. And part of our rationale in this process was that the only thing keeping that economy afloat was the price of oil. And if, in fact, we were steady in applying sanction pressure, which we have been, that over time it would make the economy of Russia sufficiently vulnerable that if and when there were disruptions with respect to the price of oil — which, inevitably, there are going to be sometime, if not this year then next year or the year after — that they’d have enormous difficulty managing it.” (Transcript: President Obama’s Full NPR Interview)
Am I mistaken or did Obama just admit that he wanted “disruptions” in the “price of oil” because he figured Putin would have “enormous difficulty managing it”?
Isn’t that the same as saying that it was all part of Washington’s plan; that plunging prices were just the icing on the cake for their asymmetrical attack on the Russian economy? It sure sounds like it. And that would also explain why Obama decided to allow domestic producers to dump more oil on the market even though it’s going to send prices lower. Apparently, none of that matters as long as the policy hurts Russia.
So maybe the US-Saudi oil collusion theory isn’t so far fetched after all. Maybe Salon’s Patrick L. Smith was right when he said:
“Less than a week after the Minsk Protocol was signed, Kerry made a little-noted trip to Jeddah to see King Abdullah at his summer residence. When it was reported at all, this was put across as part of Kerry’s campaign to secure Arab support in the fight against the Islamic State.
Stop right there. That is not all there was to the visit, my trustworthy sources tell me. The other half of the visit had to do with Washington’s unabated desire to ruin the Russian economy. To do this, Kerry told the Saudis 1) to raise production and 2) to cut its crude price. Keep in mind these pertinent numbers: The Saudis produce a barrel of oil for less than $30 as break-even in the national budget; the Russians need $105.
Shortly after Kerry’s visit, the Saudis began increasing production, sure enough — by more than 100,000 barrels daily during the rest of September, more apparently to come…
Think about this. Winter is coming, there are serious production outages now in Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya, other OPEC members are screaming for relief, and the Saudis make back-to-back moves certain to push falling prices still lower? You do the math, with Kerry’s unreported itinerary in mind, and to help you along I offer this from an extremely well-positioned source in the commodities markets: “There are very big hands pushing oil into global supply now,” this source wrote in an e-mail note the other day.” (“What Really Happened in Beijing: Putin, Obama, Xi And The Back Story The Media Won’t Tell You”, Patrick L. Smith, Salon)
Vladimir Putin: Public Enemy Number 1
Let’s cut to the chase: All these oil shenanigans are really aimed at just one man: Vladimir Putin. There are a number of reasons why Washington wants to get rid of Putin, the first of which is that the Russian president has become an obstacle to US plans to pivot to Asia. That’s the main issue. As long as Putin is calling the shots, there’s going to be growing resistance to NATO’s push eastward and Washington’s military expansion across Central Asia which could undermine US plans to encircle China and remain the world’s only superpower. Here’s an excerpt from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s The Grand Chessboard which helps to explain the importance Eurasia is in terms of Washington’s global ambitions:
“..how America ‘manages’ Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa’s subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania (Australia) geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent. About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.” (p.31) (Zbigniew Brzezinski,The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And It’s Geostrategic Imperatives, Key Quotes From Zbigniew Brzezinksi’s Seminal Book)
Get it? Prevailing in Asia is the administration’s top priority, which is why the US is rapidly moving its military assets into place. Check this out from the World Socialist Web Site:
“Under Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” the Pacific Command will account for more than 60 percent of all US military forces, up from 50 percent under the Bush administration. This includes new US basing arrangements in the Philippines, Singapore and Australia, as well as renewed close military ties to New Zealand, and ongoing US military exercises in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan….(as well as) large troop deployments in Japan and South Korea, including nuclear-armed units.” (The global scale of US militarism, Patrick Martin, World Socialist Web Site)
The “Big Shift” is already underway, which is why obstacles have to be removed and Putin’s got to go.
Second, Putin has made himself a general nuisance vis a vis US strategic objectives in Syria, Iran and Ukraine. In Syria, Putin has thrown his support behind Assad who the US wants to topple in order to redraw the map of the Middle East and build gas pipelines from Qatar to Turkey to access the lucrative EU market.
Third, Putin has strengthened a number of coalitions and alliances –the BRICS bank, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization–all of which pose a challenge to US dominance in the region as well as a viable alternative to neoliberal financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Going back to Brzezinski’s “chessboard” once again, we see that the US should not feel threatened by any one nation, but should be constantly on-the-lookout for “regional coalitions” which could derail its plans to rule the world. Here’s Brzezinski again:
“…the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.” (p.40)
“Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power.” (p.55) (Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And It’s Geostrategic Imperatives, Key Quotes From Zbigniew Brzezinksi’s Seminal Book)
As a founding member and primary backer of these organizations, (and initiator of giant energy deals with China, India and Turkey) Putin has become Washington’s biggest headache and a logical target for regime change.
Finally, Putin is doing whatever he can to circumvent dollar-denominated business and financial transactions. The move away from the buck is a direct attack on the US’s greatest source of power, the ability to control the de facto international currency and to require that other nation’s stockpile dollars for their energy purchases which are then recycled into US financial assets, stocks bonds and US Treasuries. This petrodollar-recycling scam allows the US to run gigantic current account deficits without raising interest rates or reducing government spending. Putin’s anti-dollar policies could diminish the greenback’s role as reserve currency and put an end to a system that institutionalizes looting.
This is why Putin is Public Enemy Number 1. It’s because he’s blocking the US pivot to Asia, strengthening anti-Washington coalitions, sabotaging US foreign policy objectives in the Middle East, creating institutions that rival the IMF and World Bank, transacting massive energy deals with critical US allies, increasing membership in an integrated, single-market Eurasian Economic Union, and attacking the structural foundation upon which the entire US empire rests, the dollar.
Naturally, Washington’s powerbrokers are worried about these developments, just as they are worried about the new world order which is gradually taking shape under Putin’s guidance. But, so far, they haven’t been able to do anything about it. The administration’s regime change schemers and fantasists have shown time-and-again that they’re no match for Bad Vlad who has beaten them at every turn.
- 94265 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -



"Get it? Prevailing in Asia is the administration’s top priority, which is why the US is rapidly moving its military assets into place. "
To prevail in Asia the ussa moves in outdated military assets. (aircraft carriers, F35's etc)
To prevail in Asia china/russia/india/etc. create the 'new silk road'
So to prevail in Asia the ussa must destroy it
So to prevail in asia China et al wish to trade with it.
Talk about one f*cked up country. but Hitlery will fix it or maybe that redneck from florida. LMAO
Russia's trojan horse - Wall Street
Not that Russia controls Wall Street, it doesn't need to, these bozos mess things up all by themselves.
Two Western recession 1930s/now
Two wall Street crashes 1929/2008
Everyone knows the next one is going to make the others look small.
Putin is waiting.
Next one??? It's happening right now.
Fortunately energy prices are not counted towards inflation, so they also cannot contribute to deflation... Right? RIGHT?
For the time being, yes. But the liars in government can change the rules at any time.
But, socialist governments, with their deficit budgets and debt, hate and fear deflation.
If you think consumers aren't spending enough now wait 'till they get a whiff of deflation; spending will plumet in expectation of even lower prices tomorrow.
All in all, you cannot trust any government or even any level of government. They'll do whatever is best for THEM and to hell with everyone else.
When gas prices are lower, people have more money to spend elsewhere.
Just because a chart says otherwise doesn't mean it's true.
Somewhere you can probably find one that says the opposite.
At least explain the reason for the idea. That's like saying higher prices for anything is good.
Oh it's a Trojan ho alright, I'll have more latitude after the election (Obama to Medvedyev). US Gets increased military presence in Asia. Also renewed military spending and contracts. Destroys fringe countries Venezuela etc and gets to increase police state.
Russia gets old satellite republics of the former soviet union back, and Putin is established as for life dictator. The world then is multi-polar to the novice and uni-polar to those in the know
Russia is having the kitchen sink thrown at them so it is ultimately forcing them to adapt and develop alternatives.
The result will ultimately be less dependence on Europe and even less western influence on Russia as a whole.
The Oil Lobby and the Financial lobby and their incestuous derivative scammed "hand in hand" for the Oligarchy band of Reaganista days...when Saud and GWB sang " we are the kings of the world".
Now being hoisted on their own petard like thieves falling out.
Its the financialized toxic cake that makes resolution of real economy an UNSOLVABLE conundrum for the financial electronic "pseudo" money economy world. It's one bringing the other down in race to bottom logic.
And as the man said in "seven year itch" fever : something's gotta give ! Maybe 7 years is what it takes to cure this "print to infinity" itch now gone global.
These Oligarchs (or their frontmen) now come to march in Paris...which is going to play the Court of Miracles for one day, singing their hypocritical lies for dead Esmeralda; aka FREE SPEECH; behind the banner : "Je suis Charlie".
We will have the leaders of all nations whose track record in treating their OWN home-grown media spokesmen is TOTALLY abysmal.
The list is too long. But its the same sad, sad song, being sung to mourn those who paid with their lives for it to live on.
Fortunately its a nice sunny day in the City of light where the candle of hope got snuffed momentarily.
Banzai for Liberty !
Remember 6 years ago when gas was $1.60 a gallon? The authors of this post would have you believe the world will come to an end, especially in Texas, if it goes there again. Do you believe them and if so, why?
Can't we just get rid of all these strutting idiots. They make nothing, know nothing and yet act as Gods controlling the pawns. It's the pawns that produce everything and create all the wealth. These freeloaders, looters and false prophets need kicking out we don't need them, don't want them and can no longer afford them.
Russia is something like 3% of the world economy, and declining. It is headed for irrelevance because a high percentage of its population is older. It has a fertility rate of 1.53. All that despite the fact that it has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.
So lets be honest. Setting aside its military for moment, Russia probably has less clout that the state of California. Hydrocarbon deals with China in rubbles isn’t going to undermine the world economic order. China doesn’t particularly weight it foreign policy towards Russia. They not so long ago fought a war. Despite public pronouncements of good will, both sides don’t trust each other. Russia is particularly unhappy about what the perceive to be China’s slow takeover of the far eastern part of Russia including increasing control over energy ventures there.
Putin probably also is at risk of being taken down by a coup. In 2014 his popularity was quite high. But he has one of the worlds strongest propaganda engines. But propaganda doesn’t change the price of bread. All evidence points to US sanctions seriously eroding support for Russia’s Ukraine incursion. Putin’s popularity ratings are probably not going to be far behind that. Propaganda wasn’t enough to hold the Soviet Union together.
The reality is much of Western policy towards Putin surrounds what appears of a Napoleonic figure backed with nuclear weapons. In 2014 he threatened to attack the West with nuclear weapons. In 2014 he took land belonging to another country with his military. Surprisingly, that hasn’t happened during the UN era.
Zerohedge is slightly useful for all conspiratorial stuff it spawns. It is always useful to see these alternative perspectives, but so often they just aren’t well enough grounded in reality.
Piss-poor analysis. Russia has land and natural resources. Irrelevance? You lost credibility pretty early in your post.
Ooooh. "Piss poor". I have seen a lot of heady rhetoric in my day, but that probably is the most articulate and convincing argument I have ever heard. Lets all bow down to the rubble because of its expected future decline in oil production.
Kleptocracy and natural resources have been long recognized to weaken a country. A post-Putin Russia could get more out their natural resources.
Some nice flowery language, useless stats and posits, but you fall short. Russians see this as an attack against their entirety as a people, sovereign and nation. Russia has battled the advancing horde since Ghengis Khan and even then the Mongols were subsumed into Russian blood. Ues, the Russians are the Mongol legacy and they will fight like it. Your post started to die after the remark about their military because that is all that matters. There will be no coup. The Western press of financial fuckery is being pushed back and soon there will be a true alliance to take it on. SWIFT alternative is key as well as some other key pieces. Birthrates dude? Really? Take a look at Japan and then get back to me.
Sorry, is there an argument in there? You, know where you articulate a position and then back it with persuasive, verfiable facts?
Putin plays political chess, Obama plays with Reggie.
-
useless talkings
A commendable trait of the Russian people is that they act decisively when faced with threatening situations. During WWII when the German armies were rapidly moving eastwards towards the heart of Russia, the Russians dismantled their industrial base, loaded it on railroad cars, transported it eastwards and then reassembled it. This was a MONUMENTAL achievement that few people are aware of. Additionally, they did this WHILE fighting the advancing Germans. My money is ALWAYS on the Russians. And hey, Russian women are spectacular which is not a bad thing to be...
My money is on the Russians in a conventional war being fought on Russian soil. I doubt they'd do so well if they tried for Afghanistan.
By many measures they did better there than the US and its allies.
I don't know about a new world order but the ruble collapse should certainly be generating lots of new export orders.
Tourist flights to space used to cost 20 to 40 million dollars, now down to 10 to 20
Brand new SU-35S - old price $40 million, grab yourself a bargain at only $20 million each
They're very selective on who they sell state of the art weaponry to.
Just imagine you are the hot shot French salesman for Dassault, you've spent the last 3 years trying to nail down a contract for $12B worth of Rafale fighters with part local build that the Indians said, after a tender competition, that they wanted.
Then in comes the Su salesman from Moscow saying, why not buy more of my lovely fighters that you are already building, now half price due to the friends of the French, the US. Except that the man from Moscow is saying it in every other Ministry in New Delhi as well, the Air Force saves money you get more to spend! Talk about stuffing the French for the Mistral ship delay.
So you say, the US really shot itself in the foot this time, pissing off the French. But you would be wrong, by killing this contract for the Rafale it takes away potential money from the French aerospace industry that could mean killing a competitor to the F-35. Talk about finding a 'Mars bar in a bucket of sh*t'.
Ah, one can always be sure that on articles about Putin and Russia, many mercenary Empire's whores will be active. How is life in those NGOs and NSA/GCHQ swineries? Well paid for your dirty work, are you whores?
// '; filtry.appendChild(div); }); })();]]>What's this, the 6th or so "low oil prices are bad" article here? Really? Gonna raise the working man's cost of energy to provide a handful of jobs? Sounds like socialism to me.
Fuck big oil. Seriously, they'll be fine. The shale drilling, which we shouldn't bother with until the oil is truly needed, will stop. Some people will have to find alternative work, welcome to the real world.
Might there be some shadow-banking disruptions? I sure hope so. It's time for idiot degenerate gamblers to get their due.
Good point. But even more dangerous at this point than raising the working man's cost of energy is that the bankers are using this oil war to gain control of the world. And they need to be stopped. If it takes higher oil prices at this juncture to save Russia, so be it.
This is the last card game against Putin. The bankers’ idea is that if they don’t stop Putin and China now they are going to lose their chance for a world government.
I would like to have lower oil prices, also, but I would like even more to have the bankers defeated. If oil is going for a higher price Russia becomes richer and stronger and it solidifies her position.
The banker oligarchs couldn’t get Putin to back off in Urkaine so they’re trying to bankrupt him. If Putin can break the petrodollar we probably will return to market rate prices for oil as in the distant past rather than banker manipulated oil prices and the danger of a world single currency is reduced.
The whole fight is over the currency, i.e., to institute a single currency. And then the international bankers can charge whatever they want for oil. Once the bankers get a single currency, there no longer will be cheap gas, ever. They’ll charge whatever you’re willing to pay to get to work and survive.
I'm not buying the idea of Putin being the bulwark against a world currency at all. Or China.
And the dollar's hegemony is in its final days no matter what.
At first the argument was "oh noes - lost oil field jobs". Now that the piss is taken out of that frankly ridiculous argument, we get "stop world currency". Really, what will you guys think of next?
zzzzzzzz
You make a strong argument that this oil market collapse was US directed to try to save the dollar from Putin's de-dollarization program.
The US is so desperate to counter Putin's power that it is willing to sacrifice our Shale and Texas oil industry as well as hurting Venezuela and other oil producers.
Shows how desperate we are to prevent the de-dollarization of the global economy - that's the basis of our power to rule the world. More power to Putin as he represents our only hope of overthrowing these hidden despotic rulers of America since 1913.
I'm not a fan of Bad Vlad, but I have to admit that I hate the neocon's more. The sooner the neocons fall, the better it will be. Besides, I'm tired of paying taxes so they can destroy nations that are no threat to the USA. The sooner this whole rotten edifice comes crashing down on their heads, the sooner people will be forced to wake up. Then we can end the Fed and clean house of the neocon influence. Think "Heads on poles", Bitchez!
You realize that the neocons and the ultraliberals play golf together?
They are keeping us mad at each other, while they plan how to exploit the division.
I thought they were smoking blunts together in Hollywood while riding mechanical bulls. No?
I will be enjoying end of Putin regime this year - 2015.
And replaced by one of Ziocon oligarchs??
High oil prices meant higher tire prices, grease prices, windshield prices...
Has anyone, anywhere, noticed prices dropping in oil-derived products?
Not yet but it is happeneing, anything with an oil component will fall in price
however
everything else will rise to compensate
(less money being spent on oil related products means more money chasing non-oil related products)
Destroying the shale industry by increasing the production of oil helps increase the world’s supply of oil to drive the price of oil down and punish Russia.
It is no coincidence that the crippling of the shale industry comes just as Argentina is looking to Putin for help in upgrading her energy sector in a partnership with the Russian giant Gazprom to develop oil and shale gas production in Argentina.
Experts predict Argentina could be one of the first large shale plays outside the United States.
Putin’s primary objective is to lockup as much of the oil industry as possible in his defense against the petrodollar. His agreement this summer with Argentina to share ownership of oil and gas production expands the Russian Federation’s petroleum and gas position in the world.
Here are details of the agreement from Shale Gas International which could develop Argentina as the world’s second largest shale gas reserve. This is why the vulture funds and the vultures in Washington have made destruction of Argentina’s sovereign potential a priority:
• 2nd July, 2014 •
Gazprom will take over Argentinian gas assets from Germany’s Wintershall during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Buenos Aires on July 12-13, Russian press agency ITAR-TASS reported yesterday. In return, BASF, the owner of the German company, will become a shareholder in a gas field in western Siberia.
Wintershall has interests in fifteen oil and gas fields in Argentina, with a total annual production of 26 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company is also the operator of two license blocks in the province of Mendoza, where the presence of shale gas and oil has been confirmed.
Negotiations between Gazprom and Wintershall regarding South American assets have been continuing since 2013. The agreement is a part of an asset swap between Gazprom and BASF, which owns the Wintershall. In 2012, Gazprom and Wintershall signed a framework agreement regarding the exchange of assets held by both companies. According to the agreement, Wintershall will receive 25 percent of shares in the fourth and fifth block of the Urengoiskoye gas field in western Siberia, with the ability to increase the share to 50 percent at a later date. Gazprom, in turn, will increase its stake in joint trading, storing and extracting assets in the EU.
http://www.shalegas.international/2014/07/02/gazprom-acquires-argentinian-gas-fields-in-an-asset-swap-with-basf/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/eagles-of-empire-and-economic-terrorism-are-vulture-funds-instruments-of-us-policy/5409730
It also is no coincidence that, according to John Kemp of Reuters, “In August 2014, it was disclosed that billionaire hedge fund investor George Soros had more than doubled his stake in (the Argentine oil company) YPF to 3.5 percent.”
Obviously Soros is there, like Paul Singer, as a waiting vulture.
http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/lacp/2014/11/why-argentina-is-most-attractive-shale-play-outside-us/
Thanks for the links JR.
I've been following these shale plays in Argentina for a couple of years now. Risky stuff indeed from an investor's perspective.
Lots of enities jockeying for position, like a David Mamet play. Also, this is another reason for OPEC to keep production humming along to shut these operations down. We could very well see oil hit sub $40/bbl in the next few months, but not without a shitstorm of revolt within OPEC members. I just can't see this game lasting past Q3 of 2015 though.
But then again, this IS the sort of thing that heats up the war machine.
I still think the next few months is a BTFD moment. Apparently so does Georgie Boy.
Looks like a classic case of deflection.
The US points their collective finger at Putin while doing their own dirty deeds all around the world. Anyone who presumes to oppose the Elite is marked down as a problem to be eliminated.
Don't get me wrong; I have no love for Putin. I consider him to be just another petty dictator. But I also have no love for hypocrites.
Er, have you guys not seen this?
https://g20.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2015-TURKEY-G-20-PRESIDENCY-F...
Don't you know that everything they have been working on since 2008 is now ready to be implemented? End of the petro-dollar system. Coming to a wallet near you. Soon.