Time to Lay the 1973 Oil Embargo to Rest
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/time-lay-1973-oil-embargo-rest
The embargo was a non-event. The production cutbacks were trivial. The wrong lessons were learned. In short, everything we think we know about the events triggered 30 years ago today is wrong.
Let’s start with the embargo. Most people believe that it was directly responsible for long gasoline lines and for service stations running dry. The shortages were, in fact, a byproduct of price controls imposed by President Nixon in August 1971, which prevented oil companies from passing on the full cost of imported crude oil to consumers at the pump (small oil companies, however, were exempted from the price control regime in 1973).
Thackney, while I appreciate your presentation of this information, it was none the less within the power of the Middle-East oil cartel to cause major disruption in U. S. oil supplies. If the embargo was not the cause of this, as you say because supplies were only slightly interrupted, the potential was still there.
Are you trying to say you would like us to be back in a situation where a group could cause extreme economic disruption in the U. S.?
As I said in my previous reply, I don’t think you believe that. I obviously can’t speak for you on that point.