Authoritarian Oil Talk

Dear Andrew, I am impressed by your apparent knowledge of the facts. I am not too understanding of how your one world free trade ideology leads you to the conclusion you want us to accept.

Whether we beg the Saudi Arabians to increase their oil production, or whether we beg whoever is drilling in Anwar would hardly seem to change the way things are today. Forgetting about your sacred cows, I have no reason to believe that demands made upon "private" companies drilling in Anwar would be more honored just because the leases are here.

The lowering of world prices by increasing production is tentative and hypothetical. If we convince whoever is drilling in Anwar to increase production by 200,000 barrels a day, Saudi Arabia can merely lower its production by 200,000 barrels a day. After all, you only need so many skyscrapers for every man, woman, child, and camel. And remember that Saudi Arabia is only one of the OPEC nations.

The raising of the Chavez boogey man card threatening our individual freedoms, if applied to US oil, is ludicrous. According to that reasoning one-third of all Americans should had become political prisoners after the TVA.

Welcome to the blog and thank you for your comment.

First of all, if more oil is on the market,t he price will fall, or do you deny that?

Second, the price cartels set is not the arithmetic relationship you suggest. Saudi Arabia is not interested in maintaining a fixed price, but in maximizing profit. If there are 200,000 more barrels of oil on the market, their profit is not maximized by reducing production 200,000 barrels. There will still be a net decline in price, even if the Saudis try to maintain the maximum profit.

Or do you think the Saudis want to keep oil scarce even if it doesn't maximize their profit? Why?

And if we "dismiss" my "sacred cows" of individual freedom (what an awful sacred cow to have!) what do you suggest as an alternative? US government drilling with government oil stations? Maybe rationed oil dole for citizens from the state? How do we drill oil if not through private companies?

And the TVA was wasteful and inefficient compared to any private venture. So please do not tout that as some sort of success.

"The raising of the Chavez boogey man card threatening our individual freedoms, if applied to US oil, is ludicrous. According to that reasoning one-third of all Americans should had become political prisoners after the TVA."

Having worked for TVA, I can fully agree and CONFIRM: that TVA is inefficient and 10% of the US population are "economic prisoners" to the TVA system (TVA power distributors can only buy electric power from TVA).

TVA had its day. But that day ended in the early 1960's.

Thanks for the confirmation. I have not looked at it in a while, but I know in the 1980's its numbers were bad relative to private power generation firms, and I assumed it had not improved since.

Of course, he probably thinks the rural electrification program is a good idea, even if it has outlived its goal by a few decades and is now simply a source of below market loans for power generators in specific markets.

I know, Satyr doesn't trouble me on his won. It is more that I keep seeing conservatives, or those who call themselves conservatives, buying piecemeal into these populist causes. I had hoped we had more backbone than to say "Gosh, maybe the left is right, we need to regulate oil" or whatever the cause du jour is.

Even McCain is starting to show more backbone than some of these conservatives, and he was the worst offender at one time. But even he is starting to come back over to the free market side, albeit slowly.

It disturbs me that so many have bought into the nominally "paleo-conservative" populist/nationalist absurdities. It is time we ditched Pat Buchanan once and for all.

I mean "on his own", not "on his won".

I really need to type more slowly and carefully.