How The Wave of Middle East Revolts Will Drive The US Into a Deep Economic Crises
by Jeff DunetzWhile many people are cheering the revolts going on throughout the Middle East and shudder at the horrible violence few people are discussing the possible effect that these revolts will have on the world/US Economy. Should these revolts continue to spike up the cost of oil, the world will be thrown into an economic crisis worse than the recession that began in 2007.
Certainly the crash of the sub-prime housing boom, which was caused by the progressive belief that owning a home was a right, is the primary reason behind the financial crisis and what was to become known as the “great recession.” The part that most people forget is that the “pin” that pricked the housing bubble, and led us down the economic abyss was oil prices. In fact every rescission we have had since the mid-1970s has shown an accompanying spike in oil prices. It is not a coincidence that the worst recession in that period has been accompanied by the largest oil price spike.
Economist Jeffrey Rubin said in 2008:
Curiously, an over-500% increase in the real price of oil gets virtually ignored as a culprit behind today’s economy, eclipsed by the ongoing crisis in financial markets. Yet the run-up in real oil prices this cycle is over twice the spike in oil prices that occurred during the first or second OPEC oil shock. And those oil shocks produced two of the deepest recessions in the entire post-war period, including the 1980-82 double dip.
The price of oil influences more than just how you heat your house or drive your car.
Since most manufacturing uses oil in at least some of their manufacturing process, even if it just to get product to the market, when the oil began to spike in 2006, people who could barely afford their mortgages began to have to choice between their bank payments or basic staple items whose costs were driven up by their energy costs. A few months later, when the price increases led to interest hikes in existing mortgages, the house of cards holding up the housing market collapsed.
Crude Oil prices peaked during the summer of 2008 as it hit $145 in July 2008. Prices began to fall immediately after President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling on July 14th. By the end of December 2008, crude oil spot price fell to $30.28 a barrel. Its interesting that just the threat of new drilling drove down costs.
During the past two years prices has slowly risen to the middle $80s per barrel, but with the beginning of the protests in Egypt the cost began to rise more sharply and this week, with the increased violence in Libya which produces 2% of the world’s oil supply (and has the most significant reserves in Africa) prices spiked from $86.15 four days ago to over $100:
Oil prices continued to rally Thursday, pushing stocks lower in Europe and Asia amid fears that the unrest in Libya could spread to other major Middle East producers.
The benchmark light, sweet crude futures contract touched the key $100 a barrel level in New York on Wednesday for the first time since September 2008. On Thursday, the April contract was at $100.95, up $2.85, in pre-market trading.
Even before the Middle East protests began, Jeffrey Rubin was warning about the increase in oil prices:
Oil prices caused the last recession, and oil prices will cause the next one as well. Energy inflation is already on the march. In fact, this time around oil prices are rising much earlier and much more rapidly than they did last cycle. Inflation is already running at nearly a five per cent rate in China; as oil prices go on to set new record highs, it’s only a matter of time of before we see those inflation rates in North America and in the rest of the OECD.
If the price spiked over $100/a barrel from Libya just imagine what will happen when the wave of protests reach Saudi Arabia (there are already calls on Facebook for protests against the Saudi Government the third week of March). Should that occur the $145/barrel price of 2007 will be a very fond memory.
The oil spike in 2007/8 took down what was then a strong US economy. Should a similar or worse spike happen now, while the economy is barely keeping its head above water the United States may face and economic disaster worse than what was caused by the crash of the housing bubble.
All this is happening while the United States sits on a major oil reserve. A 2009 study by the non partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) sheds light on America’s energy resources. It shows show the U.S. supply of recoverable oil to be 167 billion barrels of oil, the equivalent of replacing America’s current imports from OPEC countries for more than 75 years.
Sadly, the progressives in Congress and the White House, refuse to open up our reserves to drilling–in fact we have gone backwards. One of the Obama administration’s first moves was to cancel contracts to exploit our shale oil reserves:
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has canceled leases for energy exploration on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah, confirming that this White House is indeed a Small Oil administration.
The previous administration, which was not beholden to environmental special interests and seemed to understand the importance of energy, had released 130,000 acres of largely uninhabited — and uninhabitable — land for oil and gas exploration.
Some of the parcels are in or near the Green River Formation, an oil-rich region in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming that has the largest known oil shale deposits in the world, holding from 1.5 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of crude.
The over-reaction to the BP oil spill, a hiatus of all offshore drilling, and the follow-up rules changes represents another retreat from exploiting our own natural resources.
As the United States continues to struggle through a weak, jobless recovery we are approaching the next economic crisis caused by higher oil prices, a crises whose start date has been moved forward due to the unrest in many of the Arab Middle East countries.
Sadly, even if we survive the coming economic collapse, we are doomed to confront collapses over and over, until we begin to search for and exploit our own energy reserves.
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274 Comments
With all the BS going on in the Middle East this oil spike and recession will make the last 2 years look like a real boom.
Time for a new rig from Amish country??
OIL.
At the end of the day, in the final analysis, OIL is all that it is about.
We live in the Hydrocarbon age.
Those who deny it, have the ostrich syndrome.
There is nothing, not one thing, in our complex society, that is not dependent upon hydrocarbons.
From the fuel for the farmer to plant his fields, to the fertilizer, to harvesting the crop and hauling it to market, to the cook placing it on the stove. The same applies for all food and fiber. Housing, clothing and right down to the glue that holds the soles on the Birkenstock Sandals that the hairy legged gals wear when they go out and protest. The plastics and materials in your computer are all hydrocarbon based. Everything.
Right down to Al Gores Jet Fuel.
Chairman O is speeding for the cliff with the peddle to the metal, he knows God Damn well what he is doing.
He means to destroy the entire world economy but most of all the USA's economy, he sees the USA, most of all our constitution as "impediments" to his and Soros' plans to "transform" the entire world.
Make absolutely no mistake, the only way Chairman O and creepy dude can succeed is through the absolute destruction of our constitution and our economy.
Their primary goal is economic chaos which in turn leads to political instability and then lawlessness and anarchism followed by their promises or "restoration" with a constitutional price tag.
He and Soros are in fact very smart men unfortunately for the U.S. and the rest of the world they're Josef Stalin and Mao Tse Tung smart.
This was Obama's plan all along.
This is one of Obama's campaign promises he's keeping – energy prices will necessarily sky rocket!
Speaking of the high price of oil, isn't it about time that someone blames Bush?
Where are the protesters, now that fuel has climbed close to four bucks a gallon?
Where is Maxine Waters, telling the heads of the Oil Companies that "What this Congresswoman is all about, is Nationalizing your companies!" (Anyone remember that outburst from 2008 Congressional Hearings?)
Dead friggen silence…………..
Since the 2007 meltdown, the US economy has been on the edge of a repeat. CNBC, MSNBC and other media "financial experts" are living in a dream world, just like they were prior to the first meltdown. All we need to do is watch what Peter Schiff said in 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw
And guess what……. he is saying it again for 2011…….. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVCVyh7Hzw
Jeff, would like to see better editing in your grammar. Mistakes hurt your credibility. Your headline uses the word crises, which is plural. Peter Bohan your Editor missed that one.
ANWR Exploration:
House Republicans: 91% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Coal-to-Liquid:
House Republicans 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed
Oil Shale Exploration:
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration:
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed
Refinery-Increased Capacity:
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed
Summary:
91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas, while 86% of House Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.
In 2009, the United States still imported 51% of all its petroleum requirements, both crude and refined.
. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/02/the_i...
.
Looks to me that the democrats want us to be energy dependent. This article doesn't even address nuclear energy which has a similar voting history.
The so called "financial experts" wish they were as accurate as weathermen.
Obama is anti capitalism and anti American. Those who say he's doing this on purpose, may really be on to something.
No one could be this anti business in a "great recession", especially, when you say you're "all about jobs" as Mr O has claimed ad nausem..
Oh the Democrats and the Republicans are all the same! Corrupt politicians!
[yes that was sarcasm]
Ace hardware has food grade 50 gallon barrels with screw tops for $29.00.
Time to store a few hundred gallons of gas.
And look……hell is about to freeze over: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/cold-...
Owning a home, like health care, is a right!!!!!
Both are found in the right to engage in private two party contracts absent government interference.
What is NOT a right is being somehow empowered by the democratic process to force another to pay for what it is you yourself contract for in your own Pursuit of Happiness.
This distinction must be part of the daily arguments with progressives.
Choices have consequences and the remedy for bad ones is called personal responsibility. This oil climb is unstoppable at this point and it IS going to be worse than the last time. A huge difference this time is that "Blame Bush and Blame Republicans and Blame the Rich" isn't gonna work.
This time, the responsibility is going to rest where it belongs. With Envriontmentalists who stop us from accessing our own supplies and force us to be beholden to foreign sources as part of their foreign aid packages. Global warming hysteria is over and the number of folks supporting drilling here and drilling now is about to explode in a way this nation has never seen. It will be so large that media will not be able to hide it.
"(Anyone remember that outburst from 2008 Congressional Hearings?)"
Unfortunately, that little clip is burned into my memory. Here it is from a Fox News report. It's well worth watching again. Especially for the statement that precedes waters' admission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjFBiPMmBE
You forgot one aspect in your summary Syrin……..OR:
Good -vs- evil
Maybe that's why they haven't issued any new permits yet – they're waiting to Nationalize them first.
I find it telling that the right is always ready with some hand wringing and fear mongering over the possible dire consequences of allowing people self determination, particularly when those people are brown people making trouble for their former colonial masters in the developing world.
I also find it telling that your throwaway punchline — user "our own" energy resources — exists, as it does in the minds of most Tea Party types, in a context devoid of understanding of the way the energy market works. Oil is a fungible commodity traded on an open market. Once it becomes part of the supply, there is no "our oil" or "Middle Eastern oil", it's just oil. The idea that the United States can somehow bypass that market and hoard its "own oil" for exclusive use is absurd for a couple of reasons: 1) we only have enough oil to supply our needs for about two months, six if you throw in all the resources that may be developable over the next 20 years, and 2) the United States doesn't control that oil, multinational corporate interests that increasingly operate outside the purview of ANY government control that oil, and they have a fiduciary duty to sell that oil where it earns the owners the most profit. How do you propose to force Exxon-Mobil to turn over good God-fearing American Oil to Americans Only?
Tea Party philosophies like Drill Baby Drill simply reveal that there's precious little substance underlying the rhetoric. That's hardly surprising once you realize that the entire "movement" is a bought-and-paid-for enterprise of men like David H. Koch, who have glommed onto the general unease about the direction of the country, felt by liberals and conservatives alike, in order to advance their corporatist, fascist agenda. What it boils down to is this: there's bad stuff going on in America, conservatives blame the government (AKA the people) and liberals blame the corporate establishment for exploiting the poor and working class, casting them aside like so much garbage when there's a basis point on the line.
I'll cast my lot with the American people and the poor and working class of the world. There are far more of us than there are billionaires, and once the people wake up to the fact that they've been intentionally divided, intentionally misled and intentionally exploited into centuries of warfare, misery and struggle by what amounts to the same handful of people, you're going to have far bigger things to worry about than $4 gasoline.
THIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3I-PVVowFY&fe... never got the Media attention that it warranted. It is from June '08. I saw it live on Cspan, and the thud of my jaw hitting the floor, is still echoing in my ears.
This was long before Breitbart created these forums, and changed the paradigm of the Old Media.
For a FACT, the two singlemost threats to America, to our way of life, to our existence, to the survival of the modern world, are the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Progressive Congressional Caucus. They are cross-pollinated.
Do your own research.
Yep.
I just posted it below as well.
I meant crises…If you remember I talk about it happening over and over
I had a vision
A much maligned Conservative, hair flowing in the breeze rides into battle.Her armor shines despite the many minor dimples from recent brushes with lesser beings. Her well worn armor gleams with a hardened hammered look. Her banner flows from her lance held aloft the antithesis of her cowering opponents. It announces across the darkened sky in red white and blue DRILL BABY DRILL. The opposing forces try to fall back behind their leaders already in full retreat. You can hear the moans of the fallen and the shrieks from RINO hoards "it will never be the same". She raises her visor and declares "YOU BETCHA!"
"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
The Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!"
"Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!"
Thought I'd throw you down memory lane. Or maybe spark an acid flashback. Either way, I hope you enjoy the trip.
Stay away as long as you like. The rest of us are busy having an adult conversation.
Food, fuel, tools, lanterns, soaps, and other things are on my list to stock up on.
I saw that about San Fran may get snow…I hope the freaks enjoy the warming.
When society is dumbed down to the point that they think that magic happens and fantasy is real…. This is exactly what you get.
It IS about the oil. It IS about the failure to secure our borders. It IS about the indoctrination in our schools. It IS the greedy entitlement mentality. It IS the appease the world syndrome.
I’m not going down without a fight…. I know a little bit about civil disobedience too… Just try to shove me to the back of the bus and you’ll see stars and I don’t mean the kind in the sky!
higher oil prices – check.
skyrocketing debt – check.
accelarating inflation – check.
rising interest rates – check
falling dollar – check.
unemployment – check.
open borders – check.
civil strife – check.
The Soros-Obama
fundamental transformationdemolition of America continues.Don't forget Ammo.
Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I don't trust the republicans either.
To paraphrase one of the co-writers, of all things, "South Park," when asked if he liked republicans:
"I hate republicans, but I really, really, really hate democrats".
I don't think you understand what a 'right' is. I can assure you that neither owning a home or getting health care is a right, certainty not in the Constitutional sense anyway. Nothing is a 'right' that cost money, or that someone else has to provide.
You have a right to be whatever religion you choose to be, that doesn't cost anyone anything. You have a right to free speech, nobody has to pay anything so you can speak your mind. You have a right to bear arms, that doesn't cost anyone anything either, but you got to buy the gun, its not free.
Liberals have really confused what a right is. I agree that you have a right to purchase a house, or to obtain health care at your expense. And maybe that's what you meant.
"Tea Party philosophies like Drill Baby Drill simply reveal that there's precious little substance underlying the rhetoric."
Philosophy?
Substance?
Rhetoric?
Bend over.
"now that our enemy in Libya is in jeopardy"
Yeah, go figure. But "our" enemy is Libya just happens to be obama's FRIEND in Libya. Connected entirely through the "reverend" wright, calypso louie farrakahn, and their "pilgrimage" to Libya. Not to mention all the campaign cash that went to obama from his "friend" in Libya.
When will Obama give his "Mission Accomplished" speech?
"I'll cast my lot with the American people and the poor and working class of the world. There are far more of us than there are billionaires, and once the people wake up to the fact that they've been intentionally divided, intentionally misled and intentionally exploited into centuries of warfare, misery and struggle by what amounts to the same handful of people, you're going to have far bigger things to worry about than $4 gasoline. "
So, I read your implied threat with mild amusement.
Bring it on.
Thats what youse people want in the final analysis. Class warfare.
You are too lazy, and too inept to work. You are entitled. Entitled to what, I don't know.
WE do not live in a goddamned Democracy.
It is not mob rule, or the law of the jungle.
We live in a Constitutional Republic, and it is high time you sorry sunsabitches realize that. You should have learned it in school, but I surmise you were educated by Union Teachers, in a government school.
File this under "duh". The entire world is in some way, shape or form dependent on petroleum and it's more refined products for its daily existence. From gasoline to plastics and everything in between, it is a necessity at this point. And since Chairman Obama has decided we must import all our product, was there really any other possible outcome?
"When society is dumbed down to the point that they think that magic happens and fantasy is real…. This is exactly what you get. "
Isn't that what American Idol teaches the Great Unwashed?
Look into how many PUBLIC employee compensation and retirement packages include oil and energy stocks. Dirty business…. being a hypocrite. Sorry, I don’t care what color your skin is, if you steal from my wallet your a thief.
So… to use your flawed logic are ALL billionaires’ evil? I hope so, because it takes your arguments right into the trash heap if you have exceptions to the rule.
I'm sorry, but what self determination are we being allowed to here? Am I being allowed to keep my OWN hard earned money without going to jail?? I mean since I have to not only pay 100% of MY retirement, I have to pay almost 100% of a bunch of OTHER people's retirement.
And it is OUR Oil – we drill it, send it to OUR refineries, and then use it in OUR States. Then we don't have to BUY it from overseas, you idiot. And there's enough oil (that we currently know about) in the ground RIGHT NOW that will supply us for over 200 YEARS. (And guess what, we keep discovering MORE) And that "it will take 10 years" is a old 70's cliche – once we KNOW where the oil is, it take about 3-6 months before it's being pumped out of the ground and ready to use. The oil that comes out of the ground in Texas, Louisiana and Kansas don't "magically" go to some big pool that gets divied out to "the world" – it goes where it gets shipped to, and if it's drilled here, stored here, and shipped to a refinery here, and doesn't get shipped out of the country, then WE GET TO USE IT! OMG!! GASP!!!
I'll say it again….
Everything's going according to plan….
Yup, these Progressive vermin will be the death of this country….
"…interesting that just the threat of new drilling drove down costs."
Time for the Gulf Governors to BAND together & tell the O, Salizar, DoE, EPA to screw themselves.
Sort of like O did yesterday …deciding he thought the DOMA Law is un-Constitutional, screwing the States.
October 5, 2010
Dear President Obama,
Night falls on the Doakes household like the shock of a sonic boom, I can’t believe that my calm life is in a country in such deep trouble. Every night I do the same thing, I check the locks, set the alarm, make sure my dog is comfortable; sometimes I wonder if she will actually bark, or try to lick a perp to death. While doing this I look at the photos on my walls. One of them is my Grandfather in front of his B-24 Liberator (15th Air Force, 461st bomb group). No smile, all business, that was Grandpa; in fact he rarely smiled all of my life.
Often I try to bridge the chasm that is the death of my Grandfather. I’ve got his diary, a set of books that he purchased about World War Two, his medals, and a box of memories from the war years. Often, not tired, I sit and read through all of this stuff; at times I compare events in the history books to my Grandpas diary, from that I can see how the courage, and ability of one man worked in tandem with all the other men fighting to rid the world of gangsterism in the form of the “National Socialist Party” or the Nazi Party and Imperial Japan.
In short, I try to see the world through my Grandfathers eyes, and contemplate where my Grandpa’s smile went missing. Then I remember he survived the depression, fought the war behind a .50 caliber machine gun, for 35 missions, crashed in a “milk run” losing all souls – save his, spent half a year in a body cast, and walked around with pieces of Nazi flak in his legs in wounds that never healed.
If that happened to me I wouldn’t be smiling either.
As I go through this exercise of trying to remember my Grandfather; current events flood my thoughts as I try to fall asleep. I’m frustrated that more of my fellow citizens do not see that while the solutions to our problems are simple, not easy mind you, but simple, I wonder what it is going to take to wrest them from their slumber to do the hard work needed to defeat our debt, deficits, and our enemies. While I will never build a bridge over the chasm to my Grandfather, I can try to bridge it with my fellow citizens. If we build it out of fiscal sanity, States Rights, Individual and Economic liberty, and getting the federal government back into the footprint laid out in the Constitution; that bridge will be strong enough to hold all of us, if not the world.
On November 6, 2012 “We The People” are going to poor the first footing of that bridge. While my Grandfather, our Grandfathers may not be here to walk across it, they will look down upon us, and they will finally be able to smile as we continue to honor their sacrifice, by liberating America, one vote at a time.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
ps. Remember what we have been through. We are a tough and resourceful country. We can overcome this one man. He is just the President. He does not possess the leadership qualities to BE the President!
We've stocked up on all those necessities. Focusing on barter goods now.
One thing I am quite certain will be a big hit, and very valuable…………..I have been home brewing high quality beer (ales, porters and lagers) for 16 years. I have 15 cases of 22oz bottles. AND I don't drink.
Building my own solar panels, at 90% off the retail price. We will be "on" the grid to sell power back to the evil empire, then, if we lose power they can kiss my a$$.
I find it amazing, although I shouldn't, that it's still possible for you 'progressives' to trot out the same, old, tired, discredited crap as you've been doing for more than a century, and somehow still think it's relevant. Give it a rest already.
Spot on.
I trust them as much as I do a Muslim teaching a child morals.
Sad but true… there are more people lined up at an American Idol roundup auditions than at any job fair at any given time in America. Just the kind of thing we really need… more entertainers.
"Am I being allowed to keep my OWN hard earned money without going to jail??"
NO!
Shut your mouth, send in your check, put your head down, shoulder to the grindstone and go back to work!
Don't you know by now, that the non-producers have not allotted the producers time to draw a breath?
It doesnt need to cause us worry, we need to DRILL in the US now,
put in more refineries, this would also starve those Muslim countries of funds for terrorism !
But Obama wants us weak so it wont happen .
Educate me please……….
time to pull your head out of your ass and breath some fresh air, Buddy….
Buddy?
Look at the icon.
I think it is one of them there "wimmen" that shaves………
That was lovely Joe
When the Flag of Islam is flying over the White House.
What amazes me is that his fat head is able to fit into his fat ass….
Damn straight Whats Up, Obama wants us weak an defenceless it is the only explanation ,
we need drilling an refineries for the oil we produce dont send the oil overseas.
Starving the terrorist is an added bonus!
An we wont be supporting the terrorist with oil money, added bonus Ax.
Gentle Readers,
Dear Mr. Dunetz,
Thank you, Sir. May I add;
In regards your comment that the mere prospect of new oil drilling reduced oil prices when Pres. Bush finally removed restrictions on offshore oil production in the U.S. caused oil prices to fall;
The reason this happened is that most oil is produced and sold on long-term contracts. A price will be set for oil from a field say in OK, and the buyer will agree to purchase x barrels for $x a barrel.
The ' spot market ' is what is volatile: Thats where oil prices ' spike ' to $100 a barrel, but most oil didn't cost that much. However, as the spot market prices increases, this leads to increases in prices for new oil delivery contracts in the future.
Bringing new oil fields into production leads to decreases in the spot market price as the future contract price will decline in anticipation of increased supplies.
Producing oil on long term contracts is beneficial as it removes speculative risk allowing producers to borrow capital at far lower rates of interest and make long term investments in infrastructure & personnel. This in turn leads to further increased production and price stability.
Sincerely,
John Lepant Brighton CO
Yes it is, except for the republican governors getting in the way of Obama's union money,
Great memory Cowboy! I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
Keep up the good work!
Your guess is as good as mine….
nobody I'd like to see without a shirt…..
America produces oil now and to my knowledge either none or very little of that oil is exported. Why do you think that would change if we developed our own resources and suddenly had an abundance of oil?
And another big advantage to producing our oil is job creation for our own citizens. We keep our money here instead of sending it to the Middle East. Also, if we develop our own resources we never have to worry about running out. I can assure you the government can persuade the oil companies to keep that oil here if need be.
I dont know if you ever go the the blaze Cowboy,
seems organizing for America, Obama's brown shirts are making camps for kids to go to,
they get college credits for going to the camps.
Get used to it. It's here.
I'm sure there's a prayer rug in the oval orifice…..
and a turd with his ass in the air….
I'm glad to see the Representative Republic has been restored after two years in which the outcome of an election didn't matter in the least to you people.
I see you have gotten your copy paste talking points for the day, tell me what is your qouta for websites to post this.
Good point. But if you were wondering why my comment didn't seem to connect to anything, its because I just realized I posted it in the wrong place. It was supposed to be a reply to trevzb. Oh well.
Yeah, I'll go ahead and say it. If you've managed to accumulate several billion dollars in wealth, you're evil.
What do you think Jesus would do with that kind of scratch?
By "our oil", do you mean yours as a citizen, or as a shareholder in Exxon-Mobil?
Wow…third grade insults of a three-year old photo. You must have very rich lives.
He'd probably organize a Crusade to take back the Holy Land from the heathen dirt worshipers.
That's just the point…if we started developing ALL of our own oil resources RIGHT NOW, we wouldn't have an abundance of oil. We'd meet our daily thirst for the stuff for a few months, and then I suppose we could collect it from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and try to make that work.
We don't have enough and can't get enough to sustain our usage. The only approach is to reduce demand dramatically. You don't have to take my word for it…none of you do.
Argon is heavier than air, thus retarding oxidation and displacing explosive fumes…
not something you'd put in the tank in your car, for obvious reasons…
If that is a three year old photo Rachel, you must have one helluva beard by now.
Hork.
Are you accusing Big Oil of financing terrorism?
I just watched the whole video. All I kept saying was "WOW!!!!" He nailed it and all the rest were completely wrong. Too bad he couldn't have been our senator instead of that ultralib Blumenthal.
So what's the price on the 20-year contract when all this new oil comes online?
Are you saying that George Soros is evil?
I think you're confusing Jesus with the Catholic Church.
Their interests don't coincide.
OPEC yes.
Yes, we do…
"I'm sorry, but what self determination are we being allowed to here?"
I was talking about the self determination of the people fomenting revolution in the Middle East against the allies of their former colonial masters. My apology if if wasn't clear who I was talking about…I was responding to the article entitled "How The Wave Of Middle East Revolts Will Drive The US Into a Deep Economic Crises" (sic).
Rachel?
Tell me, do you have a very close "friend" that uses the other hemisphere of your brain?
Just this one. My Soros payment is direct deposit, too.
Amazing that all that Iraqi democracy didn't inspire the Tunisians, Egyptians, Algerians, Bahrainians and Libyans YEARS ago…
The oppressed people of the Middle East understand that the people the world over support them in their revolution, and they understand the point of view of those that worry over the possible impact of those revolutions on oil prices, as well.
Obama didn't decide that, the global corporate oil establishment decided that long ago.
They have to kill them before they can eat the carcass.
At least the Republicans aren't trying to kill the "American Way" as quickly as the Democrat-icks.
You are propagandized. America uses about 8 billion barrels of oil per year. A 2005 RAND study estimates that we have about 800 billion barrels of oil trapped in shale that are recoverable from the Green River Formation alone.
This amount is more than three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. And this is only ONE site but it alone would be enough oil to run America for a HUNDRED years.
There is no shortage of oil and America has far more than we need well into the foreseeable future. But liberals prevent us from getting to it.
Read this: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_4vBmZzsaTDXwSUm...
And then read this: http://www.gravmag.com/imports.shtml
A short story, but very relevant. Also verified by a friend that works on a local California resource board:
Right before the elections in California, the legislature was looking for new energy sources. Natural gas was talked about extensively, since Cal is sitting on some of the biggest Nat gas reserves in the country. In the news a new nat gas reserve was found in California. Exploiting these reserves would means $billions of revenues to the state governments.
After the elections, California closed the area due to environment concerns. My friend told me, that any natural resources that will increase economic activity are shut down because the Greenyes don't want it.
Thank you, you saved me a lot of one finger typing, we have enough oil in this country to be able to tell the whole Mtddle East to screw.
Speaking of nationalization of oil fields and the cozy relationship between Obama and Gadhaffi, it was Gadhaffi, don't forget that NATIONALIZED the Libyan oilfields in 1976, throwing the entire world economy and oil production into complete and utter chaos and the US oil companies as a result entered into the Libyan Oil Producers Agreement which was upheld against antitrust charges.
OPEC runs the refineries?
I think you are confusing Jesus with Marx. The poor will always be with us. Christians are repeatedly called to be separate from the govt melee. So your govt-based Utopia is a non-Christian concept. It is envious and greedy to think that someone is inherently evil because they have something that you do not. You have no knowledge of what billionaires do philanthropically, other than what they make public. AND Christ said it is none of anyone's business–philanthropy is to be done quietly and anonymously.
Your precious "poor class" in this Republic does not remain static. Of the people who were "poor" in the last census only a small percentage are still poor. Our poor migrate out of poverty and down into poverty. We only have a stagnant class–like say a Caste System–in our populace that is generationally govt dependent. It is incredulous to me that you have never known anyone who was poor, then rose higher, or richer and fell. It happens OFTEN. It is the result of living in a free society, When you speak of the American poor, you are not speaking of the same as the Mexican poor. That is hardscrabble. Our poor has electricity, TV(s), microwaves and a car. Your class warfare is contrived. Your Utopia is not possible because we are humans, not serfs. Your Jesus interpretation is based on Jesus Seminar crap and Marxism.
Soros speaks for himself. Ick.
Uh huh.
So what do YOU think Jesus would do with his billions?
Hey, at least he feels bad about it.
Just keep the Soros Checks coming, George! I'll keep banging my head against this wall of ignorance.
It shows.
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