The Right Touch

Quick, name a leader whose every word can roil or calm the markets from Tokyo to Wall Street. Now that U.S. central bank boss Alan Greenspan is retired, and his successor is still settling in, that description may best apply to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, who has in fact been described as the Greenspan of oil.

“Naimi’s performance has been fantastic,” says Leonardo Maugeri, a senior vice president of Italian energy giant ENI. “Few people know how difficult it is to impose discipline over OPEC, and he did it.”

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