Why $40 oil is killing Iraq, Venezuela and others, but not Russia

Reuters ^ | August 28, 2015 | John Lloyd

[thackney]

It’s not the economy, stupid. At least it isn’t where hearts are warmed by the fiercer flame of nationalism, rather than rising living standards.

Oil prices as low as $40 a barrel are separating the oil haves from the oil have-nots. The oil producers happily rode a wave of high oil prices for years, buying popularity with increased state spending while excusing themselves from the hard pounding of legitimate economic reform. The oil-buyers — like India and Egypt — now enjoy prices as low as a third of those they paid as recently as two years ago and can cut fuel subsidies, saving spending or redirecting it to broader social uses.

As a result, most of the oil-producers are now in a troubling position. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro faces parliamentary elections in December with falling popularity and a poll showing Venezuelans will vote for the opposition rather than his Socialist Party by a factor of two to one. Maduro lacks the charismatic populism of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez — a popularity based on the former president’s insistence that the high oil revenues were benefitting the poor (they did) and making the nation great, while sticking it to the Americans.

In Canada, now a major oil producer from Alberta’s tar sands, polls are jumping about nervously, as Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper seemed up in April, then down in July. Harper has been in power since 2006, so “regime fatigue” is judged to be a large factor in the public’s ambivalence toward him. The fall in the price of the commodity that accounts for a quarter of the country’s export revenue and nearly 10 percent of its GDP is not his fault — but it’s happened on his watch. This will only aggravate the fatigue. Elections are in October...

[thackney]

excerpted for Reuters

[Jonty30]

Canadians are fools if they dump Harper. He’s the reason Canada has had a decent showing over the last 6 years.

[2banana]

Hmmmm

What else could be different about Russia, Iraq and Venezuela....???

[brivette]

let me stink for awhile...

[mac_truck]

The evils of nationalism...

/puke

[TWhiteBear]

Occasionally, Reuters and Gallop have unbiased articles.
This article, however, is utter trash and fantasy.
‘A similar phenomenon has occurred in Russia. Rising prices, falling employment, stagnant or reduced wages have had one political result above all others:’

Reuters can be a servile as TASS or PRAVDA was in the Stalinist days.
TWB

[FreedomNotSafety]

What’s trashy and fantasy? Putin defends himself by promoting Russia nationalism. I would pan the article because of its simplicity in providing us a blinding glimpse of the obvious.