Talk Islam

Lawrence of Arabia

  • 02:00:23 pm on May 27, 2008 | # | |
    Tags: , ,

    it seems to me that those in the u.s. who wish to secure energy independence from the middle east have put little thought into what the world is going to look like when the great oil producing countries are no longer receiving revenues from that source. when the wells finally run dry, the collapse of several national economies cannot possibly be a pretty picture, it seems to me.

    saudi arabia, et al., should squeeze every dollar and euro out of their wells that they possibly can while they can because they could be looking at a very bleak economic future.

     

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Comments

  • thabet 2:08 pm on May 27, 2008 | #

    If we believe Steve LeVine, they can’t even get their short-term thinking right.

  • Lawrence of Arabia 2:21 pm on May 27, 2008 | #

    bangs head repeatedly against desk

  • aziz 2:22 pm on May 27, 2008 | #

    Actually, the Gulf States are diversifying their sconomies heavily. Of course Qatar and Dubai and Abu Dhabi are promoting themselves as tourist destinations, centers of finance, and trade, but the gulf states also are investing in nuclear energy and pursuing renewable energy initiatives, most notably Masdar City.

  • razib 6:28 pm on May 27, 2008 | #

    “when the wells finally run dry, the collapse of several national economies cannot possibly be a pretty picture, it seems to me.”

    well, it really isn’t that many people. iran can find other ways to produce money, look at turkey. OTOH, the gulf state are screwed because they have minimal human capital; anyone who has had relatives working in that region knows that the local population are operationally rentiers, even those who do “work” expect minimal inputs to get a regular salary.

    “Actually, the Gulf States are diversifying their sconomies heavily. Of course Qatar and Dubai and Abu Dhabi are promoting themselves as tourist destinations, centers of finance, and trade, but the gulf states also are investing in nuclear energy and pursuing renewable energy initiatives, most notably Masdar City.”

    right. but two points

    1) some of these, like dubai, are mostly expat driven economies.

    2) the diversification that you’re talking about works well with smaller emirates and city-states, but what about saudi arabia??? they have tourism via mecca, but that’s about it. they sure don’t want to turn themselves into dubai, and they’re not a nimble enough state to be press-ganged into a liberal direction by an autocrat like qatar was….

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