Russian Crimea: One Year Later

NATO calls Crimea “invaded” and “occupied.” NATO has taught the world well what invasion and occupation really looks like, and Crimea isn’t it. In 2001, NATO invaded and began the occupation of the South-Central Asian country of Afghanistan. The invasion and occupation has left tens of thousands dead, many more displaced, and has resulted in continued […]

Petraeus: The Islamic State isn’t our biggest problem in Iraq

Gen. David H. Petraeus, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq during the 2007-2008 surge, was back in that country last week for the first time in more than three years. He was attending the annual Sulaimani Forum, a get-together of Iraqi leaders, thinkers and academics, at the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani in northern Iraq’s […]

Fracking: How Does it Work and What Does it Mean for Our Energy Future?

On Friday, the Obama administration announced the first major federal regulations on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting oil and gas that has dramatically increased American energy output. While the term has become a political hot potato, many Americans remain unclear in terms of how the process works and the advantages/risks […]

Saudi Arabia: No political motives behind oil policy

Saudi Arabia’s OPEC governor Mohammed al-Madi said his country has no political motives in its oil policy, rejecting criticism over Riyadh’s decision to let oil prices slide. Some producers say Riyadh declines to support the oil prices with an OPEC production cut in order to hinder other producers, such as Iran, a diplomatic rival of […]

Ex-Soviet states battle challenge of low oil prices

The three main members of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union face a big economic challenge from the fall in global oil prices, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday. But, speaking before talks in the Kazakh capital Astana with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, Nazarbayev said the situation had become more […]

We’re Drifting Towards World War 3

  The Economist argues that there are ominous parallels between the conditions which led to the first world war and today: The United States is Britain, the superpower on the wane, unable to guarantee global security. Its main trading partner, China, plays the part of Germany, a new economic power bristling with nationalist indignation and […]

Russian Inflation hits 17 per cent

Inflation in Russia has hit a zenith of around 17 per cent, the economy minister said Thursday, as the economic crisis roiling the country takes its toll.”The peak in inflation has not passed but we have reached the highest point and will probably stay at this level for some time,” minister Alexei Ulyukayev was reported […]

A Nuclear Deal With Iran Could Increase Global Oil Glut

It’s not just Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders who are scrutinizing the Iran negotiations. Oil traders are, too. That’s because there’s already an oil glut, and an Iran deal could lift sanctions and mean even more oil. “Even the thought that Iranian oil could be unleashed on the global market is, you know, getting […]

North Sea oil to benefit from tax cuts

North Sea oil producers will benefit from a sharp cut in taxes worth £1.3bn after the UK chancellor slashed the headline supplementary rate on profits in the Budget, a move that could give some ageing fields a new lease of life. George Osborne responded to the plunge in crude prices and industry pleas for help […]

Saudi oil: Peak conspiracy

The oil world’s been full of speculation about the shift of strategy last year by Saudi Arabia which saw it keep the pumps running even as the price fell, turning an initial drop into a plunge. There may be a simpler explanation for Saudi’s willingness to see prices slide than an attack on US shale […]

Kunstler: American Amoeba

T he money-moving world waits on tenterhooks for the Wednesday appearance of America’s oracle, Janet Yellen, to step out of her grotto and state whether or not she feels twinges of patience. Wikipedia notes that Pythia, the original priestess of Delphi “…delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from a chasm in […]

Removing U.S. Oil Ban Would Create Jobs

Lifting a 40-year-old U.S. ban on crude exports would create a wide range of jobs in the oil drilling supply chain and broader economy even in states that produce little or no oil, according to a report released on Tuesday. Some 394,000 to 859,000 U.S. jobs could be created annually from 2016 to 2030 by […]

The Rage of the Cultural Elites

A certain unhappy incident happened to my aunt in the summer of 1966. The Cultural Revolution—a political movement initiated by Mao Zedong—was beginning to engulf the country. That same year many American college students were protesting against the Vietnam War and Leonid Brezhnev was keeping his seat warm as the General Secretary of CPSU, having […]

How Fast Can We Cut Energy Use?

Energy intensity improvements, or declines in the amount of energy consumption per unit of economic output, must play a critical role in efforts to decarbonize the global economy. Global decarbonization scenarios depend on a wide range of energy intensity improvement rates. Several scenarios which rely heavily on renewable energy and exclude other technologies from consideration (i.e. nuclear […]

US Energy Department to Buy Oil for Strategic Reserves

The Energy Department on Friday announced it was buying up to five million barrels of oil for the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve, a federally owned stockpile of oil that is available in case of an emergency or sudden disruption in oil supply.  In March 2014, the Energy Department announced it was selling five million barrels […]

Israel Seeks Casus Belli

THE UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting to discuss the flare-up of violence on the Israeli-Lebanon border. France requested the urgent talks in the 15-member council after two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper died in the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters. The violence raised fears of another […]

OPEC story is not over

Despite OPEC losing its influence, which might not be recoverable, people are still highly dependent on traditional fossil fuel which means the organization will still be important in the future, economist Max Fraad Wolff told RT. A new report by the World Bank claims the cartel of oil producing nations will lose its influence due […]

Kurdish oil deal with Baghdad unravels

A four-month-old oil deal between Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region is close to unraveling after payments from Baghdad dried up, prompting Arbil to threaten to sue buyers and ramp up independent oil exports. The dispute highlights fundamental differences between the two sides over who controls oil resources and revenues and will reinforce the views […]

Oil Prices Pushing Venezuela To Economic Collapse?

The Global Impact Since June 2014, a substantial decline in oil prices has occurred, bringing prices of oil down to a five-year low. While the slump in oil prices benefits consumers by increasing their real income and reducing costs of production, it presents a big challenge to the oil-rich economies around the globe that are […]

The Coming Chinese Crackup

 On Thursday, the National People’s Congress convened in Beijing in what has become a familiar annual ritual. Some 3,000 “elected” delegates from all over the country—ranging from colorfully clad ethnic minorities to urbane billionaires—will meet for a week to discuss the state of the nation and to engage in the pretense of political participation. Some […]

Tax Per Mile Cometh!

Oregon – home of things uber trendy – has become the first state to begin dunning motorists by the mile rather than by the gallon. The “pilot” program begins July 1 — and will be implemented by the Oregon DOT in partnership with something called Sanef ITS Technologies America and Intelligent Mechatronic Systems. Sounds a […]

Putin eats babies: lies, damned lies, and psyops

  Google Ngram’s results for “propaganda”. The term seems to have been most popular in the early 1960, to lose interest in the following years. Of course, however, propaganda didn’t disappear – it just went undercover. I distinctly remember one day when I was – maybe – twelve; when my father saw me reading something […]

Anarchy in Rojava: A libertarian revolution in the Middle East

In this sedition, we look at the fierce men and women, who have been fighting the head chopping Islamists of I.S.I.S. to create libertarian commune along the border between Syria, Iraq and Turkey. On the music break we have Kurdish rapper Rezan with “Em Kurdin.” Our guest this week is Chris Dixon, author of “Another […]

The Real Story Behind The Oil Price Collapse

Many reasons have been provided for the dramatic plunge in the price of oil to about $60 per barrel (nearly half of what it was a year ago): slowing demand due to global economic stagnation; overproduction at shale fields in the United States; the decision of the Saudis and other Middle Eastern OPEC producers to […]

Support Al Qaeda to Defeat ISIS

The Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington DC think tank with large influence over U.S. foreign policy, is once again calling on the Obama administration to support Al Qaeda terrorists under the guise of defeating the Islamic State. In an article entitled, Accepting Al Qaeda: The Enemy of the United States’ Enemy, Foreign Affairs writer […]

Turkey Seeks to Replace Ukraine as Energy Hub

Russia says it will stop sending natural gas to Europe through Ukraine and will start sending it through Turkey. Turkey welcomes the decision. For ten years the country has aimed to be a major energy hub, or distribution center. But some critics say Turkey is not prepared to play such a role. Atilla Yesilada is […]

The Real (and Troubling) Reason Behind Lower Oil Prices

It isn’t supply and demand, as most people believe I am obsessed with how the top tier of finance has undermined, rather than fueled, the real economy. In part, that’s because of I’m writing a book about the topic, but also because so many market stories I come across seem to support this notion. The […]

Think of Russia as an ordinary petrostate, not an extraordinary superpower

The Kremlin’s motivation in the Ukrainian conflict has split scholars. Is Russia a greedy state ideologically driven to expand or a declining insecure superpower defending itself against NATO? Realist scholars (for example, see these recent pieces by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt) argue that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict was provoked by NATO expansion into Georgia and […]

Chaos: Practice and Applications

The term “chaos” has been popping up a lot lately in the increasingly collapse-prone world in which we find ourselves. Pepe Escobar has even published a book on it. Titled Empire of Chaos, it describes a scenario “where a[n American] plutocracy progressively projects its own internal disintegration upon the whole world.” Escobar’s chaos is tailor-made; […]

Most Americans Favor Invading Syria and Iraq

According to the Brookings Institution, only the economy is of more concern to Americans than the Islamic State. It cites a Quinnipiac University poll released last week showing nearly 70 percent of respondents believe the Islamic States poses a direct threat to the United States. “As economic worries gradually subside, concern about terrorism is on […]

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