Guest Post: Want to Put Iran Out of Business? Here's How
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Want to Put Iran Out of Business? Here's How
Those attempting to pressure Iran by increasing "tensions" and thus the price of oil have it precisely backwards. The one sure way to fatally destabilize the Iranian theocracy is to adjust the demand and supply of oil so the price plummets (as it did in December 2008) to $25/barrel, and stays there for at least six months.
It has been estimated that the Iranian theocracy cannot fund its bloated bureaucracies, military and its welfare state if oil falls below around $40-$45/barrel. Drop oil to $25/barrel and keep it there, and the Iranian regime will implode, along with the Chavez regime in Venezuela.
Saber-rattling actually aids the Iranian regime by artificially injecting a "disruptive war" premium into the price of oil: they can make the same profits from fewer barrels of oil.
The way to put them out of business is drop the price of oil and restrict their sales by whatever means are available. They will be selling fewer barrels and getting less than production costs for those barrels. With no income, the regime will face the wrath of a people who have become dependent on the State for their sustenance and subsidized fuel.
How do you drop oil to $25/barrel? Easy: stop saber-rattling in the mideast and engineer a massive global recession with a side order of low-level trade war. Though you wouldn't know it from the high price of oil, the world is awash in oil; storage facilities are full, and production has actually increased a bit in North America.
Long-term, Peak Oil is a reality; but in the short-term, production is more than adequate to meet recession-suppressed demand.
The way to drop oil from $100/barrel to $25/barrel is to crush demand via global depression. Let's face it, the global economy is already slipping into depression as credit bubbles pop and austerity and rising debt service expenses bleed off disposable income.
We can nudge the global demand for oil off a cliff with a few other policies, for example, a low-grade trade war with China and Japan. Political leaders everywhere are already itching for a scapegoat, and imports are ready-made and waiting. Slap some heavy tariffs on Chinese and Japanese goods for "dumping" or some other excuse and then the inevitable counter-tariffs will be imposed on U.S. imports. Since U.S. exports to Asia are but a thin slice of imports from those nations, even a low-key trade war will have outsized negative consequences on Asian exporters.
Exports make up a relatively small percentage of Japan's GDP (ditto for the U.S.), but they contribute most of the marginal growth and profits in the Japanese economy. China is hugely dependent on exports and fixed investment in factories and real estate. There is no way the Central Government can spend its way out of the hole created in the Chinese economy as the real estate bubble pops, exports plummet and foreign direct investment dries up.
Europe is already caught in a vice of austerity and rising debt service expenses, so a depression there is already in the pipeline.
In the U.S., a $1 per gallon tax on all liquid fuels would cause short-term pain but would put significant downward pressure on oil consumption. Even without this tax, U.S. consumption will crater as the global economy contracts and Federal spending finally stops rising.
The most important fact about the global pricing of oil is that price is set on the margin. That means that if global demand falls by 10% from 80 million barrels a day (BPD) to 72 million BPD, price will not drop by 10%--it will fall far more.
It is instructive to recall that the mere threat of global depression in late 2008 sent the price of oil under $30/barrel in very short order.
Supply needs to overwhelm demand for at least six months to put the Iranian theocracy out of business. For that, the U.S. needs its exporting allies such as Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia to continue pumping even as prices collapse.
As I have often noted in my "head-fake" series on oil pricing, rapidly plummeting prices set up a positive feedback loop which further suppresses price: as regimes like Iran find their income from oil exports falling below their minimum survival level, the only way they can raise cash is by pumping more. This extra oil hitting a market awash in oil will only further suppress price.
Alternatively, they can withdraw their oil from the market in the hope that this reduction in supply will cause prices to rise. Unfortunately for Iran and Venezuela, their production isn't large enough to overcome a 10% reduction in global demand. Six months into their forced-austerity program created by their net income from oil exports falling to zero, they will find the streets filled with hungry, angry citizens.
That will be the end of those regimes.
So the first part of the solution to Iranian hegemony is to actively pursue high-visibility diplomacy in the mideast, repeatedly declare "war is not the answer," etc., and announce some major diplomatic initiatives, even if they are totally for show. That will drop the price of oil $20/barrel in short order.
Then quietly gain the support of the major exporters to continue pumping even as oil prices collapse. The Saudis and other major exporters can survive six months of low income from oil; the Iranians and the Chavez regime cannot.
Lastly, impose austerity, write down debt, squeeze lending, initiate some low-key trade wars and cut Central State spending, all of which will trigger a severe contraction in the global economy and in demand for oil.
Then once the Iranian nuclear threat has been throttled by a collapse in that regime's income stream and by a populist regime change, pro-growth policies can be restarted--and perhaps this time, if debt has been written off en masse and the predatory financial sector is finally allowed to implode in insolvency, they will actually be effective.
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stupidest.article.ever.bitchez
The only thing I can imagine is the blog's business model accepts paid posts by ppl trying to pimp themselves. This if so profoundly stupid there can't be another answer.
"This if so profoundly stupid..."
Uh, ok......
Only thing more stupid is the "peak oil" racket promoted by Al-Gore and other members of the power elite.
Chuck should take up plumbing. Israel wants US to attack Iran, US will attack Iran.
No way. The US is the greatest nation of badasses on Earth. The US takes orders from NOBODY, not even chosen people. I dare you to prove otherwise.
Get your head out of your ass and give it a good shake bozo Conrad
There is alot of shit on your face.
Licker.
BEST way to put the entire middle east out of business?
Open all oil pumps, lower oil prices.
Unleash that Saudi 100 year oil reserves all at once.
But Iran is an ex Persian empire not just a rogue state. They have their own exchange the iranian bourse, their own global press PressTV, own culture, make their own fighter jets, etc.
Instead of invading Iran with US taxpayer funds, US should outsource trading and banking to Iran to do it cheaper and save tax payers some money. Global competition is good for you!
I stopped reading after it go to get oil to $25/bbl.
The country ran on $8/bbl oil a decade or so ago. Taking it to $25/bbl will hurt, but you're dealing with people and nations whose "long term" planning involves more than looking 5 years into the future.
This article is enough grounds to revoke this man's privileges from posting to ZH; truly degrades from the credibility of this site!
This will be the moment when the rise of the oceans begins to slow and our planet begins to heal as Unicorns shall shit Skittles...
This childish idiocy belongs in academia, not the big bad world in which the human race actually exists. The window on this strategy closed a long time ago (in an HFT world). The increase in the US money supply since the last oil crash makes a repeat of $30USD impossible, even in the face of a Global Great Depression. Furthermore, the "enlightened" foreign policy of the US--- of burning bridges with the marginal producers, delaying production increases at home and abroad (whether by MIC insertion or withdrawal), alienating historical allies who are larger producers, and aggravating "less than allies" who are the other large producers and consumers significantly reduces the lower bounds to which to the oil price can be driven.
Conrad, and just how do you suggest that anyone might 'prove' this?
Would the fact that you can't fight wars on your own be sufficient, or that you pay to establish military bases where you can and then pack up and fuck off like good little boys when you're told to?
Every other empire in history has established its authority through the imposition of government, so let's not misunderstand each other, the US takes orders from everybody and pays the bill to boot. You're not a nation of badasses, you're a nation of fucking mugs.
Stop dreaming, your comments are about as useful as the article.
Drop the price of oil to $25 just like that eh? I wonder if Chuck was Michele Bachmann's economic advisor...
How to drop it?
Just like with gold and silver: the CME repeatedly raises oil margins, day-by-day, to reach 90%.
U.S. strong-arms other exchanges to do the same, with the promise of just a six-month limit.
Yep. Easy to do... raise the fucking margins to 100%.
But low oil prices doesn't make the elite money nor does it make people poorer.
So no.
Technically the easiest way to drop oil to 25 a barrel is to sell oil at 25 a barrel non?
And PS no I don't want to put Iran out of business.
Who the fck wrote this article? Please put yourself out of business TIA.
BINGO! This is why this plan is a non-starter. TPTB makes mondo jack with $100 and up oil and they can continue to suck the last few shekels out of what remains of the US middle class. Add onto this the profit potential from supply and support of a new war effort against one of the 'axis of evil' (profit potential which is probably already factored into many corporate 2012 earnings estimates). Or they could forgo this by selflessly sacrificing all this profit potential as well as taking a loss on their oil trading and equity positions as global depression engulfs a planet already creating trillions in new funds to stave off said depression. And don't forget this global depression will further accelerate the shrinkage of the shadow banking derivative pool which will likely take the TBTF banks down for the count. Do we bet on the buzzards, or do we bet on the saints? FAIL.
"I wonder if Chuck was Michele Bachmann's economic advisor..."
Uh... no.... but he makes a hell of a corndog...
The only thing more stupid than that comment is, the idea that we can consume a finite resource infinitely.
riiiiiiiiiiight.....oil is finite because of it's biotic origin from dinosaur carcasses.
You should just STFU.
So where's the fucking oil? No one is producing your magic oil, so where the fuck is it? Does Rotheschilde have it up his ass, because no one knows where it is!
I forgot you are an illiterate sad fuck.
Therefore you have not read up on countless MAJOR oilfields being discovered in Brazil, Norway, Cuba, Mexico, Libya, and countless other places.
So if oil is finite because of it's dinosaur origin (as "peak oil" trolls claim), this means Jurasic Park is based on true facts.
Scientists have been cloning dinosaurs by the millions, killing them, submitting their corpses to high pressures, and obtaining major oil fields as a result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYuLjGQQ-jg
you are correct about us not running out of oil.
Rubin is another Soros puppet just like Michael Moore and Al Gore.
He even uses the same catch phrases like "inconvenient truth".
Let him speak longer and he'd probably spew out "I invented the Internet".
You don't need to "BURN OIL" to transport stuff.
If A then not B? Bawhahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
Don't waste your time JW, let the fucknuts be fucknuts. The world will indeed stop using oil with plenty of it still in numerous sources. Lots of other things are going cause big problems for life (as we know it) on this planet long before the oil is ever gone.
Spoken like a man that understands big giant lungs and large 4 chamber heart can suck up 10 to 20 times background radiation into your body.
Stamp hoover on your ass and go jogging.
You first idiot.
The stone age did not end for a lack of stones....
Show me somebody who has an IQ over 100 who says it's dinosaurs. What are you talking about?
Meanwhile, show me the discovered oil graph versus time with all these new finds compared to the Ghewar, Bhurgan and Cantrell. If you read a little, you will see that peak oil is simply about the oil getting progressively more expensive and EROEI going down, which is exactly what is happening.
Good luck getting that $25 a barrel and required price rigging and conspiracies, jews taking over the world, yadda yadda.
Please look at a graph of oil priced in gold during the last 40 years.
JFC, you are stupid.
Show us the "MAJOR" oilfields. We could use a good laugh on such a grim topic.
Production matters, not exaggerated URR
stupid fuck.
They're in Candyland. Before we find the oil, let's get to work finding the magical neverending coco fields!
But yet he makes a point. It's not hard to imagine a bacteria that converts carbohydrates to hydrocarbons. Why is it so hard to imagine a biological or even purely chemical process that makes the stuff from excess core energy.
It's also not hard hard to imagine skittle-shitting unicorns, a Star Trek replicator, or a fully functional 48" penis.
Oh the trees are running out!
\Oh the coal is running out!
Oh the oil is running out! We'll all freeze to death walking!!
Beam me up Scotty.......
please look at graph of oil production, produced in reality over that same time period. you can cite all the new reserves you want, production has been flat since '05 and is entering decline.
Countless MAJOR oil fields?? Care to cite just a few?
Most oil is from plant matter and microscopic life in aquatic environments, not 'dinosaurs'.
And your last 2 sentences, wow.
I didn't place the /sarc tag, but I assumed it was pretty obvious.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/business/global/03oil.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7086264.stm
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Massive-Oil-Field-Discovered-in-the...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/18/cuban-oil
Adding the top-end estimates for all those gives 34.3 billion barrels.
The world consumes 88 million barrels per day, so that's 390 days worth. Not much, in other words.
The chart at the bottom of the Norway article speaks volumes. All these new discoveries will only delay the inevitable by 10 or 20 years, at best.
Got more?
No. It delays nothing
Those fields will produce probably 500kbpd each.
Oil production IS NOT ABOUT RESERVES, IT IS ABOUT RATE OF EXTRACTION.
Deepwater fields produce at fractions of the rate that can be sustained by surface fields of the same reserves class. They peak sooner and decline faster.
The 34Bbbl found might at most give us 1.5 or 2 mbpd total. They are not going to be producing like Cantarell or Prudhoe did.
+1000000000000
Calling all NUMBNUTZES - if there be so much fucking oil to be had please let the good folks at the Oil Co's know so I don't have to have my ass go numb sitting in a fucking helicopter seat flying further and further offshore to drill more fucking holes in the ocean ........... YOU STUPID FUCKS.........
just sayin'.......
+1 Rakshas. The truth is always more complex than people re-spouting ditto head trash (spin funded by people who profit from your ignorance).
Here's a place where some real people who kinda do it for a living talk about it - yes, we find fields, some big. Nothing like Saudi so far, though, and they are not making any more of it.
http://www.theoildrum.com/
Some of the riggers there correctly predicted BP's top kill wasn't going to work and made me a lot of money going short over the labor day weekend awhile back. Nothing like facts without politics for making basic action decisions.
Obama takes a bath in it every day to wash away that "typical white woman" from his past.
And which unbelievably stupid statement is stark and glaring evidence you have not the slightest grasp of the origins of oil as 'fossil fuel', and you should be totally ignored and discounted.
I don't know which is worse, that you have no clue at all, or that you have no clue ... that you have no clue.
I'm going with the latter.
Stupidest.comment.ever.bitchez
Economists from every major banking house use emponential reserves when calculating oil prices. These banks run the power structure, and you think the ppnzi supports peak oil? JFC!
Mr. Smith seems to think that the U. S. does NOT want war. How the hell else are we going to dig out of this hole that we vigorously dig deeper? Like Wall Street doesn't make enough playing with the so-called price of oil? Chuck should get real. War is on the agenda, and TPTB say so. QED
The price of oil, like the price of money, has nothing to do with supply and demand.
It is whatever the tyrants want to set it at.
Prices can be manipulated, but they are not determined. The price of oil affects the dollar. The dollar afects the euro. Gold affects them all. Supply/demand plays a role in this. The PTB can stick their fingers in the dike, but the dam will explode.
I take recent actions of fracking as desperation related to pinches in oil availability. High-pressured brine injections into shale is now causing earthquakes in OK and OH, but the fracking continues either way. How about US take cues from Canada and drill in the Great Lakes?
The fucking Great Lakes!
21% of the world's surface fresh water is in those lakes. Fuck that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes
I'm planning to drink that shit when TSHTF at TEOTWAWKI . . . just walk into the waves and drink.
Leave the lakes alone.
Bob In Michigan bitchez!
I'm in Ohio right on the lake, so I understand exactly what you are saying. That does not stop the Canadians though. Go just across the US border into Canada and see how many well heads are already there. Hundreds in place right this second, fully operational.
I had no idea. I'll be taking it up with some Canadians this weekend, goddamn it.
Imagine if you were in a state almost completely surrounded by that water. True, that doesn't include Lake Erie, but I can get to Pt. Pelee in Ontario in an hour (somebody just asked me if I wanna go see the sunset there a couple of hours ago.)
This is fucking up my day. I usually envy the Canucks.
But not this weekend. Oh no.
Edit: As I googlattacked this topic, I found no quick and easy data, but most of what I found said, in congruence with my previous assumption, that drilling is banned. For example: http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/blog/canada-and-transboundary-water-protect...
Got any links on those wells?
I can't find one, but my boating chart has them all listed here. I thouht directional drilling was the thing that was banned, butI don't know anymore. Here is some informationthat might be helpful on thatthough - http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/OGSR/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_167105.html
Approximately 2,200 vertical gas extraction wells have been drilled in Canada under Lake Erie since 1913, and 13 oil and gas wells have been drilled in Michigan under Lake Michigan and Lake Huron via horizontal drilling since 1979
From Wiki -
Great Lakes
The lakebeds under the US portion of the Great Lakes are owned by the adjacent states. The only state that has allowed oil and gas drilling beneath the Great Lakes in recent years has been Michigan, and that only by directional drilling from onshore surface locations. All oil and gas drilling, either on or directionally beneath the Great Lakes, has been banned by federal law since 2002.
The Canadian side of Lake Erie has 480 producing gas wells in the lake. Gas production in Canadian Lake Erie waters dates back to 1913; more than 2000 wells have been drilled to the Clinton Sand, up to a few miles from the US side of the lake; the same formation produces gas from many onshore wells on the US side, but there are no wells in the US portion of the lake.[17] The province of Ontario, where the offshore wells are located, allows gas wells, but not oil wells, in offshore Lake Erie.[18][19][20] Ontario allows oil production from below the lake only from wells drilled directionally from onshore surface locations; a number of such directional wells are producing oil from beneath Lake Erie in the Goldsmith/Lakeshore Field.[21]
A gas well to the Medina Group was drilled in 1958 in Pennsylvania state waters in Lake Erie.[22]
The only state that has current oil and gas production from beneath the Great Lakes is Michigan. Michigan has 13 oil and gas wells that produce from below Lake Michigan, all drilled directionally from surface locations on shore. Directional drilling beneath the Great Lakes is now banned.[23]
The US Geological Survey has estimated that 430,000,000 barrels (68,000,000 m3) of recoverable petroleum liquids and 5,200,000,000,000 cubic feet (150 km3) of recoverable natural gas underlie the US portion of the Great Lakes. Petroleum potential was given to all of the lakes except Lake Superior. The majority of the natural gas (3.0 TCF) is thought to underlie Lake Erie.[24]
It sounds like the wells you speak of might be legacy wells grandfathered in from days of yore.
Man, Erie got fucked up! Wow.
No wonder all those clean water fanatics I've dismissively crossed paths with over the past 30 years were so cranked up! Now I'm glad for it.
Fresh water will likely be more valuable than oil in the coming years (when production costs are considered.)
It would be a stoooooopid capitalist indeed who fucked it up. Or even let it happen.
Come on now, don't go off into fantasy land on us.
Peak oil was invented by M. King Hubbert, you retarded fuck...a GEOLOGIST
Exactly ... an oil exploration geo ... and the first time I heard Hubbert himself say this in the science.geo newsgroup, in mid-1999, I can assure you that almost no one in that professional geo newsgroup knew who he was, nor had heard of "peak oil". Peak oil is in fact a new concept to the mainsteam geo community, and we all thought he must be wrong. Only he's not. And that was really hard to accept, at the time, and that's why geo's generally weren't ready to accept it for a few years longer. we argued intensively about it, but inevitably came to realise he's right.
(just look it up in the sci.geo newsgroup threads if you don't believe that's how general awareness of it came about, and the time-frame it occurred in)
But the almost totally ignorant public are now struggling with the reality of it as well, but fools keep coming out with this happy-crappy notion of a-biotic oil regeneration as saviour.
I personally know (very closely) one of the geo's who has posited the potential in recent papers (during the past 5-years) for a-biotic oil generation deep in the earth. And even if my friend got the geochemistry right, and developed a viable geo-mechanical emplacement mechanism, and even if it was all actually true and happening, the public still wouldn't understand that, it would be a very slow long-term process.
And when a geo says 'long-term', they really aren't bullshitting about with the number of millions of years involved. Namely that the a-biotic oil debate, as saviour of the present society, is a complete farce, for even if it were occurring as a real process the trap repository regeneration would take place over millions of years. not over the next decade or five.
And this characteristic failure of non-geos to comprehend the scale, and proportions and time involved, is the reality these a-biotic-oil-as-saviour twats, can't cope with.
They are simply deluded and they don't understand why that is, and judging by their statements and their dubious 'logic' I think it's safe to say that they don't want to understand it, either.
fuckin I knew usenet was the shit, but didn't know it could function as a spirit medium.
Hubbert died in 1989
Damn ... my bad Trav ... my memory seems to be getting holes and ad-lib-ing missing bits;
But this is what I mean; this Aug 1999 post is basically how things got rolling RE the on-line mainstream geology peak-oil debate;
https://groups.google.com/group/sci.geo.geology/browse_thread/thread/b9f...
No one wanted to accept the basic premise or implications (and as you see everyone was tired of the tedius debunking of doomer claptrap and 'predictions') even within geology exploration circles (and especially within academia of course).
Everyone was quick to assume it was pure BS.
Thus the whole idea of peak-oil was largely an unfamiliar one to almost everyone, even in mid-1999, although the basic arguments were fully-formed back then, and remain valid to date.
#1 for 2012 for sure.
charles just jumped the shark..........
Damn straight....what is this 'Post your most retarded disjointed nonsensical rambling article to Zerohedge' day? Charles...get a grip man.
Get a grip indeed. I am still trying to figure our how a trade war with China and Japan would drop oil prices to such ridiculously low levels. There is an extreme disconnect there. Maybe I missed it in the article?
But...at total collapsed economy will get you $25.00 oil, and that's where we are heading
It's what the US and the Saudis did some years back, to break the old USSR on the back of a drop to $10 Oil, for just long enough to make it work, and then back upward it went. Solidarity and the Pope's efforts were important but it was that deal with the Saudis that did it...
Damn Right!
The plunge in oil back then broke the USSR's back.
no; the USSR's oil production peaked in 1989.
Now that article would have been interesting.
Roger that...
If anything, we should be cheering for A-Daddy and Hugo. The only two countries of any particular global relevance that have managed to ward off the UN/NWO and stop the globalists from stealing their oil, water, and mineral rights.
Sure, they aren't pretty but they are the only girls at this particular dance at present.
IMHO.
Thanks Trav, I was wondering if somebody put something in my coffee after I read this.
this may be my all-time PR for G/R arrow ratio
Well deserved I might add, cause Smith had brain aneurysm while writing this or we just found the identity of the real MDB...
lulz
this may be my all-time PR for G/R arrow ratio
Is that what they base your pay on?
good god, no, otherwise I'd be broke as fuck
reminds me that the Tsars were right: if you have a serious problem in the country, start a war and your population will blame the enemy for all their problems
A moment ago you were speechless? Whatever, CHS just redefined my econo-trader market perspective myopia thesis. It's no longer myopia it's a case of chronic cluelessness.
well, it just jumped in my mind - can I give the green arrows back? I do somewhat prefer to have the better (if lone) opinion ;-)
CHS has a trading background, you know what is said about traders, they know every price but have no clue about values
so, now I feel better, pls arrow down
I agree with you with the chronic cluelessness and you know what?
this reminds me your Minsky Moment and how a young scientist (she was quite an eyesight, I had to concentrate hard) once explained to me that there are some moments where the cat in the box is both dead and alive - we are living through one of those
I don't blame traders - they get all their old signals, amplified and in both directions, no wonder some of them think that it's possible to get back to $25 or up to whatever by next week or so, they are just trying to work as they were used to
Hot female scientists? In Europe? We clearly do not reside in the same European country.
Schrodinger's Cat is only a thought experiment and, if you ask me, demonstrates the lapse of physics into metaphysics, thereby explaining nothing at all.
Some people consider Swinegela Merdekel to be a "hot european scientist" since she is a snake-oil physi-cist.
Well said Gene. I wondered if anyone else had noticed that an entire branch of physics and dozens of books have been based on poorly understood wave interference of subatomic particles. The simplest explanation might be:
1 Gee, we don't understand much of anything about subatomic particles.
2 There must be an infinite number of universes out there causing this interference.
My eighth grade science teacher used a thought experiment to get across the mind numbing idea that is infinity (it's not a number):
Imagine everything in this universe is the same as it is at this moment; now imagine another universe where one blade of grass in your backyard is gone, everything else stays the same; now imagine another universe where a different blade of grass is gone, but everything else stays the same; continue until there's a different universe for each blade of grass on the planet, then cycle back and start changing something else, like a single hair on your head and repeat for every animal on the planet, and don't forget the atoms on this planet and every other planet and star and rock in the universe as well.
The staggering numbers quickly make it apparent that our human brains can't comprehend infinity on a real world basis.
you should have bitchslapped him and said "stop dealing in the concrete like a cretin; abstractions are for geniuses"
Wow i never realized that it was that easy to push oil back to $25/barrel - yeah, thanks dumbarse! I guess that's also what prevented the Dear Dead Leader from getting da bomb, oh wait he has it and he never had any oil. Come on TD don't start pimping out the good name of ZH with rubbish like this...
oh holy shit!!!!! is this person utterly insane????? world wide depression????? another over educated moron. drop the price of oil to iran's production price of $25???? i remember a time when they sold their oil for $2 barrel, what was their production cost then?????? did this clown pull the $25 barrel price out of his ass? fuck it...lets drop the price back to $2 barrel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOES ANYONE PREREAD ANY OF THIS FOOL'S CRAP before posting????????????????
Yea it seems these 'economist' dudes are losing their damn minds....what is Saturn aligned with Jupiter or something? Weird.
The overall premiss is acurate, but what collateral damage would be done in the process? This course might also take out the Saudis and it would certainly take a toll on Wall Street and the banking sector. Yes... they have loans out against reserves in the ground. If the collateral deflates... bye bye banks. Much like what is happening in real estate... we can only handle one cluster fuck at a time... but good of you to think out of the box.
I could solve my sugar ant problem in my kitchen by filling my house with gasoline and torching it....makes as much sense as this article!
Nuke earth from orbit....its the only way to be sure....
Again, I would suggest everyone read "The Next 100 Years". Whenever I feel a little angst I pick it up and recognize developments as they are framed in our Grand Strategy.
Basically, the US is on top, and will create chaos where ever we sense a threat. We would most likely stay on top via our geography anyway, but why risk it.
And don't think for one second ANY President could alter this course. Huesein most likely had to agree to continue this strategy before the CFR would allow him to be elected. His methods may be different - community organizing the ME Arab Spring and what not - but the results will be the same.