What is Saudi Arabia not telling us about its oil future?

It is popular these days to speculate about why Saudi Arabia cajoled its OPEC allies into maintaining oil production in the face of flagging world demand. As the price the world pays for oil and oil products has plummeted, the price OPEC members are paying in terms of lower revenues is high, even unbearable for […]

The 5 Most Powerful Empires in History

Of all the empires that arose and thrived on the face of this earth, which were the five most powerful? And how is it even possible to select five empires from among the hundreds that have flourished over the past five thousand years? Truth be told, any formulation of the “five most powerful empires” will […]

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 […]

White House Proposes First-Ever Rules For Oil Drilling In The Arctic

The Obama administration has proposed the first-ever safety regulations for drilling in the U.S. portion of the Arctic Ocean, where big oil companies have long been hoping to lay their claim. The proposed rule, which is preliminary and is expected to take at least a year to reach its final version, would for the first […]

Islamic State attack ‘kills 40’ in al-Qubbah Libya

A bombing by suspected Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya has killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens in the eastern town of al-Qubbah. Three bombs exploded, targeting a petrol station, a police station and the home of parliamentary speaker Agila Salah, a security source told BBC News. According to an online statement, IS […]

Hyperinflation To Start in 2015: Economist Says Get Supplies : “Gold, Silver, Canned Goods, Toilet Paper, Bottled Water…”

If and when hyperinflation starts people will quickly realize that their dollars are worthless It’s impossible to predict when and how our economy will finally reach a breaking point, but according to contrarian Shadow Stats economist John Williams  it’s coming one way or the other. The only thing we can do now is to prepare […]

China’s water grab

Marxists a century or so ago believed that what they called “Oriental despotism” arose in Asia because of the need in China and elsewhere to control the water supply. In 1957, Karl Wittfogel’s work on the subject, “Oriental Despotism,” was published, warning that the need to control water for irrigation and other purposes in the […]

Saudi King Unleashes a Torrent of Money as Bonuses Flow to the Masses

European leaders are still battling over austerity. The United States Congress is gearing up for another fight over the budget. But in Saudi Arabia, there are no such troubles when you are king — and you just dole out billions and billions of dollars to ordinary Saudis by royal decree. Not surprisingly, Saudis are very […]

Richard Douthwaite – Money Supply in an Energy Scarce World, Peak Oil

Peak oil will cause recessions and even a great depression, at least this is the common understanding of peak oil’s impact on the global economy. This means . Economist Richard Douthwaite discusses the impact of peak oil on the world economy. Our current economic model requires sustained growth based on cheap fossi. Richard Douthwaite explains […]

Did the Fed Just Enter the Currency Wars?

The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting last month have foreign-exchange traders wondering whether Janet Yellen has joined the currency wars. Policy makers pointed to the dollar’s rising value as “a persistent source of restraint” on exports in a surprisingly dovish set of meeting minutes published Wednesday. The greenback fell against a broad group of […]

Population Decline and the Great Economic Reversal

In recent weeks, we have been focusing on Greece, Germany, Ukraine and Russia. All are still burning issues. But in every case, readers have called my attention to what they see as an underlying and even defining dimension of all these issues — if not right now, then soon. That dimension is declining population and […]

Kuwait Sees Crude Recovering

The surplus in global crude supply is smaller than the 1.8 million barrels a day Kuwait estimated last month, and prices will continue to recover, Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair said. The Persian Gulf state producer plans by next year to add 40 more drilling rigs and raise production capacity to 3.15 million barrels a day, […]

Ukraine has a $1 billion plan to wean itself off Russian gas

Ukraine announced plans to spend $1 billion to build up a strategic gas reserve in order to reduce its reliance on fuel imports from Russia. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Saturday that the country would borrow the money using government guarantees in order to shift the country to European suppliers of natural gas, according […]

US says 15 more air strikes launched against Islamic State

The United States and its coalition partners launched two air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and 13 strikes against targets in Iraq on Sunday and Monday, according to the U.S. military. In Syria, fighter planes and drones destroyed multiple oil dumps near Dayr az Zawr and struck “a large tactical unit” near Kobani, […]

The Great War Of The American Empire

Looking at a map of current American military engagements overseas, one cannot help but notice their wide geographical spread and their seemingly interminable nature. Battles have raged in Europe (Yugoslavia and Ukraine), in Africa, in the Middle East, and in central Asia. The American Empire has launched this country into a series of battles that […]

Devaluing Currency to Help Exporters

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to shortly print over 1 trillion euros has reignited concerns over currency wars. The euro has dropped almost 20 percent over the last six months after endless hints from the ECB. We are in a currency war, and have been since 2008. Our current global monetary system is deeply […]

Two Libyan Oil Fields Attacked

Two Libyan oil fields were attacked on Friday, Libyan oil officials said, in a fresh wave of violence targeting the North African country’s vital energy sector. The Libyan oil officials said guards repelled gunmen who assaulted the Bahi oil field operated by Waha Oil Co., a joint venture between the state-owned National Oil Co. and […]

Whose oil in Brazil?

THE slogan under which Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company, was founded in 1953 was o petróleo é nosso (“the oil is ours”). Ours, not the foreigners’, was the implication. That, too, is the sentiment behind the oil policy of the Workers’ Party (PT) governments that have ruled Brazil since 2003. But as Brazilians contemplate the […]

A New Book on Oil, Finance, and Economic History

In 1863, with the first American oil boom “at full tilt”, Andrew Carnegie had an epiphany: the world would soon run out of oil. He and a partner “decided to dig an enormous hole, capable of holding 100,000 barrels of oil”, where they would stockpile crude “until the worldwide oil shortage had struck”. When that happened, […]

Western Nations Shut Embassies in Yemen

The U.S. and other Western nations closed their embassies here, as demonstrations swelled on the Yemeni capital’s streets on Wednesday amid mounting political tensions and fears of violence. Thousands demonstrated both for and against the Houthi rebels who dissolved Yemen’s parliament and took over the government on Friday after their militants overran the capital in […]

“Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” at Expo Milan: The Place to be in 2015

If you are interested in or involved with the food, health, environment, or energy sectors; if you care about your success but also the future of the world, there is only one place to be next year: the city of Milan, Italy. From May 1st to October 31st, Milan will host the Expo 2015, the […]

Oil Revenue: Is it Really Lost if You Never Earned it?

There have been lots of recent headlines about how much money the governments of oil exporting nations will lose as a result of declining oil prices. But these countries will really just earn less money than they would from selling their product at a higher price. The price of oil has never been static and […]

How Russia Plans To Retaliate For The Saudi-Driven Collapse In Oil`

A week ago we explained that yet another conspiracy theory, one involving virtually every geopolitical hotzone, from Saudi Arabia, to Russia, the United States, Qatar, Syria, ISIS, and Ukraine, has become fact when our speculation from last September, namely that the plunge in oil was an choreographed move between the US and the Saudis (even […]

Is Peace or War at Hand?

At this time we do not know the outcome of the meeting in Moscow between Merkel, Hollande, and Putin. The meeting with Putin was initiated by Merkel and Hollande, because they are disturbed by the aggressive position that Washington has taken toward Russia and are fearful that Washington is pushing Europe into a conflict that […]

Mapping The Next Nation To Join The Currency War

With China devaluation looming as the great unspoken Black Swan trade, and on the heels of the Swiss National Bank folding on its ‘peg’, we thought a quick glance at the world’s “pegged” currencies would be useful as a guide to where the next shoe (and pant legs) will drop. With global FX implied volatility […]

Orlov: Masters of Parallel Universes

Much as we may dislike the fact, the results from quantum physics are unequivocal: parallel universes do exist. Schrödinger’s cat is both alive and dead, at the same time, while it exists as a probability distribution, which is resolved into either a live cat or a dead one by the act of opening the box […]

The Battle for Libya’s Oil

The first artillery rounds landed just as the setting sun threw shadows on this barren stretch of coast. Atop an earthen observation berm, a young fighter in an oversize flak vest peered through a makeshift periscope. Six miles away was the prize: white storage tanks filled with oil. Over the walkie-talkie came a hurried voice: […]

Iraq Ground Offensive ‘Within Weeks’

Baghdad: A top US envoy said Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against Daesh in the coming weeks, as a suicide bomber killed 14 people in Baghdad on Monday. Daesh spearheaded an offensive that swept through large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, and Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground […]

Oil is falling, and it’s all OPEC’s fault

The price of crude oil has fallen roughly 60 percent since mid-2014, which has largely been put down to worries of a global glut of crude, coupled with dwindling consumption. But after four years of Brent crude remaining relatively stable at $100 per barrel, changes in production and consumption “fall short of a fully satisfactory […]

UAE rejoins airstrikes on ISIS after ‘abominable’ execution

The United Arab Emirates announced Saturday it is sending a squadron of F-16 fighter jets to Jordan, resuming its participation in U.S.-led airstrikes on The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The announcement was made by UAE’s official government news agency, following the U.S. State Department’s announcement Friday that the Arab country had reaffirmed its […]

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