U.S., Saudis Play Dangerous Game With Oil
By Richard Walker
Americanfreepress.net
January 12, 2015
The elites in the mainstream media are celebrating reports that President Barack Hussein Obama has been exploiting America’s major role as an oil producer to get into bed with the Saudis and wage economic warfare against Iran and Russia.
The theory advanced by the likes of Tom Friedman of The New York Times is that Obama and the Saudis have been flooding the market with crude oil to drive prices down. This has resulted in a 40% drop in global prices in the past four months. The deflationary effect, said Friedman and others, will wreck the economies of Iran and Russia over time since they depend on oil remaining over $100 a barrel to boost their economies.
The story goes that the Saudis want to attack Iran and Russia in order to weaken their support for Syria—objectives that fit neatly into Obama’s foreign policy aims.
The problem with all of this, of course, is that the oil weapon, which traditionally has not proved particularly effective, could result in long-term damage to the U.S. economy if countries opposed to Washington decide to influence markets as well.
It should not be forgotten that the United States does not even need to play this cynical game. America is floating on oil and natural gas, which is all we need to supply Americans’ energy needs. And that’s what makes what the U.S. government is doing even more dangerous as the price of oil is influenced highly by international markets. This means that whatever the U.S. does internationally will come back to haunt U.S. energy companies and those Americans who drill for oil and natural gas.
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