The OIL CARD: Global Economic Warfare in the 21st Century
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Challenging the conventional
wisdom surrounding high oil
prices, author James R. Norman makes a compelling argument and sheds an entirely
new light on free-market industry
fundamentals.
By deciphering
past, present, and future
geopolitical events, he makes the case that oil pricing
and availability have a long history of being
employed as economic weapons by the United States.
Far from conspiracy theory, the book notes how the
U.S. has previously used the major oil players, the
Saudis, and market intervention to move markets—
and shows how this is happening again. This compact
and unorthodox analysis will appeal to a broad audience—
from energy consumers puzzled by intractably
high oil prices to producers wondering how long
windfall prices can defy gravity.
The author has done an excellent job of researching
an incredibly complex subject and committing it
to paper. He shows a real depth of knowledge and
perception of not only the mechanics of the energy
markets, but also the history and politics behind
them. He details the government’s strategy against
Russia starting during the Reagan administration. He
documents and proves that the U.S. government and
its allies artificially kept oil prices low for years to
starve the Soviets of income, an important tactic that
was essential to winning the Cold War.
The contrarian
thesis of this book is that the government is now
attempting to do the same to China by weakening
China’s economy by keeping energy (and other commodity)
prices high. He shows the background and
illuminates the methods employed in the futures and
derivatives markets that control the physical oil market
supply itself.
For years many major players in the
energy market have critically discussed the Wall
Streeters and hedge fund involvement in bringing
non-oil players into the energy markets. The net result
is these players are driving market prices and ignoring
traditional market fundamentals, artificially driving
oil prices upward based upon self generated
bogus risk factors and alleged technical analysis.
Certainly many will find the chapter on China
itself interesting and informative. However, if you
want to read a fascinating story of how and why we
got to $146 per barrel for crude oil just a short while
ago, this is the book for you.
Softcover, 244 pages
Excerpt
from page 82:
Another key move by the U.S. governments was
passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. That would
eventually turn the oil futures market from mainly a zero-sum risk-hedging and
price-discovery vehicle into a quasi-securities market. The ensuing flood of
investment dollars into oil futures quickly swelled the paper demand for crude
to many multiples of the physical crude market. But rather than a rising tide
lifting all boats with real wealth creation, the torrent of presumably “smart”
institutional money and non-industry hedge funds has created what amounts to a
massive self-inflating Ponzi situation.
Jim Norman is a veteran business journalist and energy reporter. He is currently a
contributing writer for McGrawHill's Platts Oilgram News, where he was a senior writer for 10
years before retiring in mid-2007. At Platts, Norman has been noted for his coverage of oil
industry finance, economics, dealmaking and chicanery. His "prophetic press reports," as
early as 1998, were cited by Paul Volcker's UN Independent Inquiry Committee for laying
bare the likelihood of kickbacks and money laundering involving the Iraq OilForFood
program. His critical analysis of Enron accounting and governance in mid-2001 helped trigger
the SEC investigation which led to Enron's downfall.