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The Daily Telegraph.

Worldwide loss of oil supply heightens Syria attack risk

Citigroup said it is far from clear whether Saudi Arabia has the spare capacity to crank up production by up 2m b/d to cushion any shock if necessary, as widely assumed, to help cap any rise in oil prices. “There is no tangible evidence of this,” it said.

Very interesting article.

We didn't learn from the death of Tito and the subsequent breakup of Yugoslavia when we deposed Saddam Hussein. Neither did we learn from the deposing and death of Gaddafi and the subsequent problems in Libya. Now we are proposing to depose Assad, the dictator in Syria. How long will that country be in chaos before it settles down to a "bright democratic future" as Iraq and Libya have? It was twenty or more years before the ex Yugoslavian republics settled down to a peaceable way of life.

And, those European countries had the advantage of not having any natural resources that the USA was interested in.

RenewableCandy wrote:And, those European countries had the advantage of not having any natural resources that the USA was interested in.

My immediate response to that is to bristle up like a porcupine surrounded by a pack of hounds. Do you really think that the USA's record of imperialistic resource confiscation compares to that of the UK? “The sun never sets on the Empire”

vtsnowedin wrote:

RenewableCandy wrote:And, those European countries had the advantage of not having any natural resources that the USA was interested in.

My immediate response to that is to bristle up like a porcupine surrounded by a pack of hounds. Do you really think that the USA's record of imperialistic resource confiscation compares to that of the UK? “The sun never sets on the Empire”

We had our day being the thieving, bullying bastards of the world

Now it's your turn.

You've had a good run. but you'll go the same way we did and, if you’ve got any sense, you'll stage a managed withdrawal from that position, just like we had to.

My concern is that your leaders do not have any sense and will go down with guns blazing, dragging the rest of the world down with them. I blame your fundamentalist Christianity. It makes for a hubris and lack of humility. There is a strand of your culture that gives the impression that it see itself as being a kind of special, chosen people who have God on their side. You’ve got to understand, looking in from the outside, that looks kind of scary.

stevecook172001 wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote:

RenewableCandy wrote:And, those European countries had the advantage of not having any natural resources that the USA was interested in.

My immediate response to that is to bristle up like a porcupine surrounded by a pack of hounds. Do you really think that the USA's record of imperialistic resource confiscation compares to that of the UK? “The sun never sets on the Empire”

We had our day being the thieving, bullying bastards of the world

Now it's your turn.

You've had a good run. but you'll go the same way we did and, if you’ve got any sense, you'll stage a managed withdrawal from that position, just like we had to.

My concern is that your leaders do not have any sense and will go down with guns blazing, dragging the rest of the world down with them. I blame your fundamentalist Christianity. It makes for a hubris and lack of humility. There is a strand of your culture that gives the impression that it see itself as being a kind of special, chosen people who have God on their side. You’ve got to understand, looking in from the outside, that looks kind of scary.

Really??
What are you talking about?
What colony does the USA still own?
What people are serfs to USA owned corporations?
What commodity or resource is imported into the USA at less then the world market price?

vtsnowedin wrote:

stevecook172001 wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote: My immediate response to that is to bristle up like a porcupine surrounded by a pack of hounds. Do you really think that the USA's record of imperialistic resource confiscation compares to that of the UK? “The sun never sets on the Empire”

We had our day being the thieving, bullying bastards of the world

Now it's your turn.

You've had a good run. but you'll go the same way we did and, if you’ve got any sense, you'll stage a managed withdrawal from that position, just like we had to.

My concern is that your leaders do not have any sense and will go down with guns blazing, dragging the rest of the world down with them. I blame your fundamentalist Christianity. It makes for a hubris and lack of humility. There is a strand of your culture that gives the impression that it see itself as being a kind of special, chosen people who have God on their side. You’ve got to understand, looking in from the outside, that looks kind of scary.

Really??
What are you talking about?
What colony does the USA still own?
What people are serfs to USA owned corporations?
What commodity or resource is imported into the USA at less then the world market price?

I could talk about why the whole global economy is bent/rigged because it depends on fiat US dollars, but that economic hegemony based on an unfair monetary system unilaterally imposed on the rest of the world by the US after it profiteered from WWII and when Nixon broke the promise made to the rest of the world to back dollars with gold, is not the real point Steve is making. I share his fear: it looks to me like there is a strand of fundamentalist insanity in US culture, and it is directly related to a belief that the US is special and that "God is on our side." The same insanity manifests as a belief that if you argue/believe hard enough that climate change is a communist/hippy hoax, then that's what it is.

I'm not sure what there is to misunderstand about this. It seems very obvious from where I'm standing.

The US controls global trade through its secondment of business executives to the World Bank and IMF. These bodies are run for the benefit of US corporations; it's called Globalisation. The US also bleeds the world dry through the dollar's place as the world's reserve currency. At the end of WW2 a lot of trade agreements were dictated by the US using its power as the banker of the free world which was established during that war. These included the agreement that still ensures that no taxation can be applied to airline fuel. This gave US airlines a huge commercial advantage at the time as the US was then the major supplier of oil to the world and controlled its price.

Without the dollar the US couldn't support its yearly deficit budget which has built up such a level of debt that it can never be repaid (not that the UK and many western European countries are much further behind). The fact that the whole world requires dollars to trade oil and a few other vital commodities enables the US to print almost as much money as it wants. This has the benefit to the US of devaluing its debts and the disadvantage to the rest of a loss of value of their dollar holdings. In effect the whole world is subsidising the 'Merican Way of Life; Americans are sponging off the rest of the world to a degree unseen in the past even in what was the British empire.

Saddam Hussein found out what happens to countries that threatened to trade oil in any other currency than the dollar. It was his threat to accept any currency other than the dollar for Iraqi oil that bought down the wroth of the US on his shoulders. WMD were a convenient ploy to cover this imperialist attack.

The British Empire was started by our control of the seas through the use of wood to make superior ships and then cannon. The subsequent Industrial Revolution that we started were founded on our huge coal reserves and their ruthless exploitation. The American, or Dollar Empire which started during the Second World War was started on the back of the ruthless exploitation of US home based oil production and the economic power advantage that it gave over virtually the rest of the world. It was backed up by naval power.

The US/Dollar Empire is larger than the British Empire, on which the sun never set (until it was abolished, that is), as it encompasses almost the whole world through the requirement to trade the world's primary energy source, oil, in dollars. The British Empire lasted for about 400 years but it doesn't look as if the US Empire will last one hundred at the current rate of disintegration of the dollar. Even shale oil won't save it because it is just so expensive compared to former oil supplies.

That's what we are talking about.
The US owns large parts of the world through it use , or is it misuse of the dollar.
Anyone relying on the World Bank or IMF for finance. anyone who works for a US corporation or relies on a US corporation for business and anyone who uses oil is a serf to the USA.
Oil is imported into the US at less than the market price because it is traded in dollars that the US is continually devaluing by constant printing.

kenneal - lagger wrote:The US controls global trade through its secondment of business executives to the World Bank and IMF. These bodies are run for the benefit of US corporations; it's called Globalisation. The US also bleeds the world dry through the dollar's place as the world's reserve currency. At the end of WW2 a lot of trade agreements were dictated by the US using its power as the banker of the free world which was established during that war. These included the agreement that still ensures that no taxation can be applied to airline fuel. This gave US airlines a huge commercial advantage at the time as the US was then the major supplier of oil to the world and controlled its price.

Without the dollar the US couldn't support its yearly deficit budget which has built up such a level of debt that it can never be repaid (not that the UK and many western European countries are much further behind). The fact that the whole world requires dollars to trade oil and a few other vital commodities enables the US to print almost as much money as it wants. This has the benefit to the US of devaluing its debts and the disadvantage to the rest of a loss of value of their dollar holdings. In effect the whole world is subsidising the 'Merican Way of Life; Americans are sponging off the rest of the world to a degree unseen in the past even in what was the British empire.

Saddam Hussein found out what happens to countries that threatened to trade oil in any other currency than the dollar. It was his threat to accept any currency other than the dollar for Iraqi oil that bought down the wroth of the US on his shoulders. WMD were a convenient ploy to cover this imperialist attack.

The British Empire was started by our control of the seas through the use of wood to make superior ships and then cannon. The subsequent Industrial Revolution that we started were founded on our huge coal reserves and their ruthless exploitation. The American, or Dollar Empire which started during the Second World War was started on the back of the ruthless exploitation of US home based oil production and the economic power advantage that it gave over virtually the rest of the world. It was backed up by naval power.

The US/Dollar Empire is larger than the British Empire, on which the sun never set (until it was abolished, that is), as it encompasses almost the whole world through the requirement to trade the world's primary energy source, oil, in dollars. The British Empire lasted for about 400 years but it doesn't look as if the US Empire will last one hundred at the current rate of disintegration of the dollar. Even shale oil won't save it because it is just so expensive compared to former oil supplies.

That's what we are talking about.
The US owns large parts of the world through it use , or is it misuse of the dollar.
Anyone relying on the World Bank or IMF for finance. anyone who works for a US corporation or relies on a US corporation for business and anyone who uses oil is a serf to the USA.
Oil is imported into the US at less than the market price because it is traded in dollars that the US is continually devaluing by constant printing.

Oh really? If more then a fraction of that were true I would think the USA's balance sheet would read something other then the minus sixteen trillion dollars it shows today.

vtsnowedin wrote: Really??

Yes, really. Never mind reality, Steve's description, and UE's and Ken's, is the perception of a lot of people looking at the USA from outside. There is a dark tarnish to the American image. Denial is never helpful.

biffvernon wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote: Really??

Yes, really. Never mind reality, Steve's description, and UE's and Ken's, is the perception of a lot of people looking at the USA from outside. There is a dark tarnish to the American image. Denial is never helpful.

At the start of the last century Great Britain was a military super-power capable of taking on the rest of the world and winning. 100 years later the USA is in that position. We had Dreadnaughts you have stealth, drones and satellites.

Military power ensured our dominance of the economic world just as it does for the US today. The method is a little different gold underpinned the pound, oil underpins the dollar. The results are the same.

Colonization is so 19th century. Today the US engineers 'regime change' to gain the control covertly we achieved overtly.

The reason for your huge debt is the vast amount of money locked up by the corporations especially in China. UK plc is in a similar position.

Read Why do people hate America? by Sardar and Davies for an outsiders view of the American Way.

SleeperService wrote:

biffvernon wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote: Really??

Yes, really. Never mind reality, Steve's description, and UE's and Ken's, is the perception of a lot of people looking at the USA from outside. There is a dark tarnish to the American image. Denial is never helpful.

At the start of the last century Great Britain was a military super-power capable of taking on the rest of the world and winning. 100 years later the USA is in that position. We had Dreadnaughts you have stealth, drones and satellites.

Sorry old chap but the Yanks had to come over and settle it for you.

Military power ensured our dominance of the economic world just as it does for the US today. The method is a little different gold underpinned the pound, oil underpins the dollar. The results are the same.

Military power yes but backed up by resources and industrial capacity. The USA has a lot more of that so wins by default.

Colonization is so 19th century. Today the US engineers 'regime change' to gain the control covertly we achieved overtly.

It doesn't matter who is in control, they still have to sell their bananas, tin or oil on the world market and need corporate services to get product to market.

The reason for your huge debt is the vast amount of money locked up by the corporations especially in China. UK plc is in a similar position.

Make up your mind, is it the USA that is the boogieman or the corporations.

Read Why do people hate America? by Sardar and Davies for an outsiders view of the American Way.

Perhaps sometime in the off season,

Plus the USA is global warming denial central.

biffvernon wrote:Plus the USA is global warming denial central.

It was British scientists that got caught fudging the numbers and discredited all the related research.