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About to go to bed, but this item: The final collapse of the Soviet Union happened in large part through the oil glut of the late 1980s. Is at least claimed t
by hga 10y ago
About to go to bed, but this item:
The final collapse of the Soviet Union happened in large part through the oil glut of the late 1980s.
Is at least claimed to be part of Reagan's economic warfare against the USSR.
Note also that not any one or even two of these things were likely sufficient to bankrupt it, they all piled on particularly in the '80s, and most of it was external and intentional.
- dredmorbius 10y agoCollapse tends to be a process of knocking out of foundations until something ultimately precipitates the rapid chain-reaction of failure. In the case of energy, there's much in the dynamic and magnitude which offers itself as a principle mode of failure. And yes, it does fit into the "Reagan's economic warfare" mode. On which, a couple more observations. 1. There are those who claim "economic warfare" isn't, and cannot, be a thing. I have words for such people, which generally aren't welcomed on HN. I also have references to comprehensive policy books on the topic of economic warfare: Yuan-Li Wu, Economic Warfare (1952), http://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-warfare/oclc/330856&referer=brief_results http://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-warfare/oclc/330856&r... 2. There are those who claim that trying to defeat other nations through energy policy and markets is absurd. Alex Epstein, a particularly exemplary case of idiot, is one such. The USSR-oil case really seals the argument against his assertion. I've noted this previously elsewhere.