Not a bad idea
Damn I love reading the release from the daily press meeting Scott Mcclelin (spelling is horrible) has over at the White House (you can find it at www.whitehouse.gov, NOT .com). The thing is so damn long, though I rarely get a chance to comment on hit here. Had a lot to say about the Dubai Ports deal yesterday, but couldn't. Regardless, I digress and I haven't even started.
Here's an interesting bit of information from a comment over at futurepundits.com in a discussion about Bush's speach at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee:
"what did we learn from Carter's Synfuel program before it was killed by Reagan?"
It's more a question of what the Saudi's learned from it. They learned that there was a disruptive alternative to oil that was economic at $40/barrel, and that they better keep oil prices below that in order to prevent synfuel gaining economies of scale that would reduce it's breakeven point even lower. Since then they've kept oil prices below $40 very carefully, until they lost control of oil prices very recently.
Of course, the Saudi's lost control of oil prices in the 80's, as new production and conservation increased the margin of supply over demand beyond their margin of swing production. That reduced prices well below the breakeven point for synfuel (even lower than the Saudi's wanted), and it lost out (and gained an undeserved reputation as a boondoggle).
US peak oil around 1970 reduced the world supply margin to a point that they had some power over prices, and they got overconfident in the 70's. The 80's taught them humility. Now, of course, they've lost control over pricing, and even if they get it back they're pretty addicted to the higher revenues. Now they're just hoping to hang on as long as possible before alternatives do them in. At that point I suspect the royal families will just pack up their billions and move to Europe, leaving their populations to poverty.
I found it interesting mainly because I feel that the media tends to represent any evidence of price controls as a new thing, but it's clearly been happening since America started to import oil from abroad. That, and I don't think most Americans consider the Middle East to be a region of much business saavy, which is dumb because that's pretty much where trade began.
Still, that's not even the point of this post! In the same discussion, someone mentioned an idea about getting Oprah involved in saving the planet. With a little research, I found the origins of the plan. Here's what you gotta do. Click on the link, copy the email, and go to Oprah's site to send her the email. Really, it isn't too bad of an idea and doesn't take too much time. Now, I'm not gonna get all super cheery and think Oprah's gonna save our world. I've seen what her damn book club does in the way of generating a ton of excess shipping for book stores, but still. If anyone's got the pull to swing it, Oprah does, right? hehe.
Here's an interesting bit of information from a comment over at futurepundits.com in a discussion about Bush's speach at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee:
"what did we learn from Carter's Synfuel program before it was killed by Reagan?"
It's more a question of what the Saudi's learned from it. They learned that there was a disruptive alternative to oil that was economic at $40/barrel, and that they better keep oil prices below that in order to prevent synfuel gaining economies of scale that would reduce it's breakeven point even lower. Since then they've kept oil prices below $40 very carefully, until they lost control of oil prices very recently.
Of course, the Saudi's lost control of oil prices in the 80's, as new production and conservation increased the margin of supply over demand beyond their margin of swing production. That reduced prices well below the breakeven point for synfuel (even lower than the Saudi's wanted), and it lost out (and gained an undeserved reputation as a boondoggle).
US peak oil around 1970 reduced the world supply margin to a point that they had some power over prices, and they got overconfident in the 70's. The 80's taught them humility. Now, of course, they've lost control over pricing, and even if they get it back they're pretty addicted to the higher revenues. Now they're just hoping to hang on as long as possible before alternatives do them in. At that point I suspect the royal families will just pack up their billions and move to Europe, leaving their populations to poverty.
I found it interesting mainly because I feel that the media tends to represent any evidence of price controls as a new thing, but it's clearly been happening since America started to import oil from abroad. That, and I don't think most Americans consider the Middle East to be a region of much business saavy, which is dumb because that's pretty much where trade began.
Still, that's not even the point of this post! In the same discussion, someone mentioned an idea about getting Oprah involved in saving the planet. With a little research, I found the origins of the plan. Here's what you gotta do. Click on the link, copy the email, and go to Oprah's site to send her the email. Really, it isn't too bad of an idea and doesn't take too much time. Now, I'm not gonna get all super cheery and think Oprah's gonna save our world. I've seen what her damn book club does in the way of generating a ton of excess shipping for book stores, but still. If anyone's got the pull to swing it, Oprah does, right? hehe.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 10:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home