I’ll be taking things more slowly over summer. With luck this will translate into occasional reflective essays. More regular posting will resume sometime in the New Year.
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John Quiggin 
Have a merry Christmas John.
In the absence of a Monday Message board, I’ll just point out that oil is now heading over $62 a gallon. The latest graphs from OPEC are pretty self explanatory, but I have added some visual assistance for the politically-impaired.
Wow! USD62 a gallon is equal to AUD20 a litre, so I am getting serious bargains down at the servo. Bat anyway.
Merry (secular) christmas, Professor Quiggin.
Thanks “wilful” for the helpful (?) correction. OK, I should have said “OPEC basket price” and added:
The new OPEC Reference Basket (ORB), implemented as of 16 June 2005, is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Minas (Indonesia), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and BCF 17 (Venezuela).
– Up to December 2005: The Monthly, Quarterly & Yearly averages were based on weekly quotations.
– As of January 2006: The Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly & Yearly averages are based on daily quotations.
– As of January 2006: The Basket Price is subject to revision.
What is crude oil?
Crude oil is a naturally-occurring substance found trapped in certain rocks below the earth’s crust. .. blah blah blah
Whatever. The effect is the same: prices went DOWN until the US mid-term elections, prices have gone UP virtually ever since. Draw you own conclusions.
My conclusions:
1. A vote for Bush/Cheney’s GOP equals a vote for Big Oil.
2. Howard’s Australia, Blair’s Britain, the Saudi Royal Family and a few others still adamantly support the Bush regime and their ridiculous “war” on terror.
3. Therefore a vote for Howard or Blai also equals a vote for Big Oil.
4. The Iraq War is (shock) all about oil.
5. Western politics, the mainstream anglophile media and Western “democracies” have generally become a sad farce controlled by forces subordinate to, or in league with, Big Oil.
Happy holidays indeed.
Yeah, Venezuela, that friend of the US. Together with Iran, Algeria and Libya.
Is that “wilful” as in wilfully misleading, wilfully ignorant, or just wilfully shit-stirring for the self-gratiating excitement of it?
Let me refer you to the opening para of the Wikipedia entry on “Big Oil:
Big Oil is a term used to describe the individual and collective economic power of the largest oil and gasoline manufacturers, and their perceived influence on politics, particularly in the United States. The companies generally described as being part of “Big Oil” include ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips.
Now go away.
All the very best over the silly season and for the new year, to John and all.
Wilful, not many people would include the list of countries you name as part of “Big Oil” (see the Wikipedia definition for example).
If you want to argue that international oil prices were NOT manipulated for the US mid-term elections, be my guest.
Buddy, you listed em, I merely pointed out the gaping holes.
wilful,
“Listed em”? I mentioned OPEC.
The OPEC countries are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Venezuela. If you followed the link to my original thread, I spoke of “Saudis and other pro-US players in the Middle East playing a delicate balancing game by promising their OPEC friends that they would cut production, but then failing to commit to the cuts and even raising production slightly instead.”
Thanks for pointing out the gallons/barrels mistake. I don’t see any other “gaping hole”.
I assume that should be barrel not gallon.
*sigh*