From wikipedia: "The 1973 oil crisis began in earnest on October 17, 1973, when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), during the Yom Kippur War, announced that they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt -- that is, to the United States and its allies in Western Europe.: full article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Oil_Embargo

Now Iran seems poised to reduce export and drive up oil prices. Friday's dramatic stock market decline may be the opening salvo. See these stories:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/busi...an-Europe.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/bu...rtner=homepage

http://video.cgi.cbsnews.com/video/v...rt=news.video3

Aggravating the problem, according to the 2nd story referenced, is that, "...all other producers are pumping at their maximum capacity."

In the CBS video clip referenced the reporter suggests that [hurricane] Katrina prices near $3/gal will look cheap!

Things are going to get interesting...

It would only act as a catalyst to getting us less dependant on them. Short term it hurts us. Long term it hurts them.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

Well if history does repeat, yes it will act as a catalyst, as it did it the early 70s. But the change was only temporary. Now look where we are. Hope we learn a more permanent lesson this time.

--

You say that "Long term it hurts them." How, please?
The oil that today they are selling for $x, will be selling for $2x, eventually(next month?). In the short term, if the supplier decides not to sell to US, then
they can sell to China. While we claim to hate terrorists, etc., we are oil junkies.
We will buy from any supplier, just to have the junk in our veins.
In some respects, perhaps the cartel should lower production. Not lower it to the point that someone invents a car to run on water, but just enough to raise
the price. The oil producers have to balance production with a limited supply.
What they sell today, they can't sell in 20 years. They also can't stop production, and hold the oil until 2120, to sell at a higher price, because the water car
will be available by then, and we won't need their oil.

Yes, things will get interesting.
Bill

If the terrorists have brains...which I suspect they do they already know our energy weakness and are likely working to exploit that weakness.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Finite resource. They only have so much but will will have energy needs indefinitely.

Support the Troops - Drive a Hybrid!

Maybe not so much an embargo (total shut off of oil imports) but OPEC does have the power to limit production and create a shortage causing economic harm. But, I think there is a lot of give/take between most of the affected countries now that we didn't have in the 70's, ie: food exports, vital necessities...that most of the arid countries just can't produce. It's hard to grow veggies/protien sources in the desert. The western allies could create "shortages" of food which, would cause similar economic/human hardship as well??? But that would just add more "fuel" to an already hot fire.

This sentiment is fully backed.

People might want to re-watch Syriana.

We have quickly lost our "dibs" on the oil being produced, and our foreign policy over the years to try to keep our tenuous hold on it has been so offensive to so many for so long that it's about to explode in our faces.

What's frightening is how quickly the US has gone from being the world's only super power to being (almost literally) owned by Asian countries, especially the newly emerging Superpower China. They've taken to the idea of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" like ying to yang. We've lost a completely different war than the one in Iraq, and no one is paying any attention. While the wars are related, one's being fought with Tanks and IEDs, and another's being fought by cheap labor and woeful ignorance.

The US is arguably insolvent. I don't have any WSJ references handy, but this article is pretty good:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/...734148677.html

Our slipping position is the natural, logical result of 30 years of downsizing and outsourcing exacerbated by the stupidest administration imaginable and adherence to the idea that increasing consumption is somehow the same as economic growth.

Y'all can add the USA to Arbusto, Spectrum 7, and Harken Energy to things run into the ground by W the president. But I said you'd be able to do that since before he got the nomination.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevejust This sentiment is fully backed.

I agree 100% here. The two biggest factors in the decline of the USA as a major power are greed and laziness. The corporate elite have been greedy (cutting American workers' wages and benefits, exporting jobs to 3rd World hellholes, and defrauding shareholders), and laziness (GM & Bush Administration's lack of ingenuity and creativity).

The bright side is that the Middle East could run out of oil as early as 2012 or as late as 2035. Either way, the primary funding of terrorism is going to be defunct in out lifetime. Toyota and Honda will be the forerunners in FFV/hybrids, and the USA (with the biggest production of corn in the world) could become the major supplier of ethanol and/or vegetable oil for fuel.