Posted on 10/26/2014 7:02:45 AM PDT by thackney
True, but not quite informative. OPEC was formed as an indigenous cartel opposing the Anglo-American cartel known as the Seven Sisters. OPEC would ultimately break that cartel, forcing its members to pursue more free market oriented strategies. This is not to say Exxon and friends have been anything like pure free market actors, but they have been market oriented enough that they have managed to turn the tables on OPEC.
In short, the local politically connected cartel beat the foreign "imperialist" cartel. Then the foreign free market beat the local cartel. Americans who call themselves conservatives while supporting tariffs and other forms of protectionism should remember this lesson and take it to heart.
Crony "capitalism"...just like WWII Germany's National Socialists.
If you drive across Wyoming on Interstate 80 you can still see the wreckage of Jimmy Carter's old Synfuels plant sitting there rusting away.
Appreciate your posts a great deal.
I'm sure you saw Hamm in the Forbes interview the other day?
Per an article I read the other night on FR it is 67 bucks ppb and some change in the US but Russia, near totally dependent on oil for govt revenue, needs 104 bucks ppb and some change just for Putin to pay the light bill at the Kremlin.
So, Russia, all seem to agree, is in deep door do right now!
Thanks
Any idea where Mexico falls if it were included in the chart at the link?
Stores can keep the TVs on the shelf, oil has to be moved to free up the storage for the next bbl..
Don’t worry. The current admin and epa will make sure we fail while the American sheeple are watching Dancing with the Stars.
An interesting piece with some very important themes.
The most important one is the economic factor in world peace. Starting with the Napoleonic Wars in the early 119th Century wars, large and small, have used economic warfare as an important tool to overcome manpower and other deficiencies.
There was no way the British could directly compete with Napoleon so they turned to bankrolling his continental opponents. Napoleon countered with his Continental System and it failed miserably.
World War I was stalemated due to trench system and machine guns. The Western Allies caused the German Empire to collapse by economical blockades which starved both Germany’s economy and population.
World War II was a war of production. Nazi Germany’s technology produced the best, on an individual basis, war machines possible. But they were swamped by the numbers of obsolescent war machines produced by America. See the various war productions numbers quoted in contemporary propaganda.
The Cold war was won because the Communist System couldn’t counter Western economic development. IMHO Reagan’s Star War Program was, in reality, a piece of economic warfare that broke the Soviets because they could not compete with US everywhere they wanted to/had to.
And now the Long War. While Long Wars require little in the way of advanced hardware and massed infantry formations they do require massive amounts of money. Since the 1970’s OPEC has had an excess of money to use to shore up their governments and attack the West. Now, 40 years later, the basis of that disposable wealth is finally being attacked. It will take a while but OPEC will find themselves in the same economic situation the Soviets found themselves in the mid 1980’s - spend all of their money to stay in power and become a bit player in the international scene or attempt to remain an international player and watch their monarchies collapse. There is no third alternative.
Interesting that the Republican answer to our most recent energy crises, “Drill every where now”, turns out to be the most effective long-term counter-terrorist response.
When it gets below $1.82 at the pump, then we can talk. Until then.....meh.
I have read it takes about a buck for saudi arabia to get a barrel in 1975.
I hear it still costs them a buck,
Just many more hands in the pie.
Just imagine how deep the hole dug for us by scrubama would be were it not for the advances in fracking that have occurred under his watch.
$2.75/gal in Lakewood, WA!
This week's edition had a front-page story on crude prices and the effect on the Bakken. The story included a graphic supposedly presenting the "Break-even Prices for Bakken Oil" county-by-county.
Keep in mind this info likely comes out of the Mineral Resources office in Bismarck which has been less an analyst agency than a optimistic booster.
I won't list all the counties, just first several, with the "break-even price" and the number of drilling rigs in operation as of a week ago.
McKenzie......$28..........66 active rigs
Dunn..............$29.........28
Stark..............$36............2
Williams........$37..........43
Mountrail.......$42..........31
Bottineau........$51.......... 4
Billings...........$53.......... 4
McLean..........$73.......... 1
I drove past a windmill farm the other day more than half not turning. Since they don’t get paid unless they produce I assumed they were broke down!!
Uh!...Uh!
A VERY big assumption.
They cost about the same to build and install as the value of the power they produce during their service life. When the gubmint subsidy dries up...so does the windmill racket.
After they've been proven "unsustainable" even to the greenest of the wienies, who will clean up the mess?
Either that or they just don’t have a customer for the intermittent power. I read an article the other day about Norway’s successful wind power project. They use wind generated electricity to pump water back uphill behind their dams. Then they generate hydroelectric power when they need it. I guess that’s one way to smooth out the bumps.
Hi thackney.
Wonder if you got a chance to see my post #15 here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3219687/posts
Sure do value your opinion if you get a minute.
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