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Saudi-Arabia and others fund their regime and frankly, standard of living, primarily through oil profits, in the same way that Google finances self-driving cars

Saudi-Arabia and others fund their regime and frankly, standard of living, primarily through oil profits, in the same way that Google finances self-driving cars R&D and other projects through ads. So sure, they can profitably extract oil at $20 price point, but that doesn't pay for their state budget. They really need a price at $80+. Meanwhile, western producers don't care very much; if the price is high, they can export, if the price is low, that massively benefits their other industry while the oil part hibernates.

myth_drannon 11y ago
Tell that to Canadians that had their currency dropped like a stone. They need to feed their families while the prices of fresh food doubled
- tosseraccount 11y ago
  Fact check: ( source : https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodinstitute/system/files/Food%20Price%20Report%202016%20English.pdf https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodinstitute/system/files/Food%20Pr... ) Food Price Report 2016 UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH ECONOMIC BRIEF 4 Prepared by the Food Institute of the University of Guelph 12/10/2015 "In 2014,the Food Institute of the University of Guelph predicted that overall food prices in 2015 would rise by up to 3.0%. As stated in our revised report in February 2015, this prediction was based on a much stronger Canadian dollar versus the American currency. For 2015, overall food price inflationary patterns were consistent with our predictions. " I know you said "fresh food", but it is January. It would not be surprising that some prices double around this time. I know that "fresh strawberries" are triple the price where I live.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Canada should've diversified its economy then.
- revelation 11y ago
  Well yeah, you need that other industry. They instead foolishly decided to get rid of that in favor of oil profits. There was a topic on this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10885001 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10885001
SixSigma 11y ago
But they don't control the price. No-one is a price setter any more, they are all price takers. They are playing Stag Hunt [1] and the Nash equilibria are "All Low" or "All High", no single entity can up the price without losing sales, only rising demand or majority throttling of supply can do that now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt
ThinkBeat 11y ago
Production costs in SA are very low. Whereas off shore oil production is quite high also shale oil. Norway is an example of a western nation that cares quite a lot.

myth_drannon 11y ago

Tell that to Canadians that had their currency dropped like a stone. They need to feed their families while the prices of fresh food doubled

tosseraccount 11y ago
Fact check: ( source : https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodinstitute/system/files/Food%20Price%20Report%202016%20English.pdf https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodinstitute/system/files/Food%20Pr... ) Food Price Report 2016 UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH ECONOMIC BRIEF 4 Prepared by the Food Institute of the University of Guelph 12/10/2015 "In 2014,the Food Institute of the University of Guelph predicted that overall food prices in 2015 would rise by up to 3.0%. As stated in our revised report in February 2015, this prediction was based on a much stronger Canadian dollar versus the American currency. For 2015, overall food price inflationary patterns were consistent with our predictions. " I know you said "fresh food", but it is January. It would not be surprising that some prices double around this time. I know that "fresh strawberries" are triple the price where I live.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
Canada should've diversified its economy then.
revelation 11y ago
Well yeah, you need that other industry. They instead foolishly decided to get rid of that in favor of oil profits. There was a topic on this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10885001 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10885001

SixSigma 11y ago

But they don't control the price. No-one is a price setter any more, they are all price takers. They are playing Stag Hunt [1] and the Nash equilibria are "All Low" or "All High", no single entity can up the price without losing sales, only rising demand or majority throttling of supply can do that now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt

ThinkBeat 11y ago

Production costs in SA are very low. Whereas off shore oil production is quite high also shale oil. Norway is an example of a western nation that cares quite a lot.