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Maybe I am confused. At some point as the World chooses cheaper oil supplies and eventually runs to a new enegry source that is not oil. That trend is not some

Maybe I am confused. At some point as the World chooses cheaper oil supplies and eventually runs to a new enegry source that is not oil. That trend is not something anyone nation can prevent, it will happen within the full next 100 years. The worry is not that Saudi Arabia and Iran will collapse..that is going to happen in the next 100 years. The concern is right now Saudi Arabia and Iran officially are still at undeclared war with Israel.. does any regime give us a worse set-up in the undeclared war with Israel? But having both as failed stats woudl be something worse

mschuster91 10y ago
> But having both as failed stats woudl be something worse Iran, in contrast to Saudi-Arabia, has industry: tourism, textiles, cement and steel. Also, due to the long international sanctions, they're used to not depend on their oil exports. Saudi-Arabia has nothing to offer except Mecca - which would likely be battle ground after a regime overthrow, because of the importance of Mecca. Yes, the SA regime has truckloads of money, but I'd guess it's all locked in foreign countries under control of members of the currently ruling family - so if the regime were to fall, vast loads of Saudi-Arabian money would not be available in the country any more.
- bmh_ca 10y ago
  SA has $117 bn in treasuries. https://www.ft.com/content/c1569904-1c14-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122 https://www.ft.com/content/c1569904-1c14-11e6-b286-cddde55ca...
  - mschuster91 10y ago
    The question is: who helds authority over which part of the assets of the Saudi state assets? If it's members of the ruling family, good luck collecting the assets. Even if it's a central bank, assets might not neccessarily be safe from theft during a coup. We've seen this all too often already.
- ende 10y ago
  Israel and the Saudis are pretty close allies. To the extent that the two have plotted out air corridors by which Israel jets could fly through to bomb Iran.

mschuster91 10y ago

> But having both as failed stats woudl be something worse Iran, in contrast to Saudi-Arabia, has industry: tourism, textiles, cement and steel. Also, due to the long international sanctions, they're used to not depend on their oil exports. Saudi-Arabia has nothing to offer except Mecca - which would likely be battle ground after a regime overthrow, because of the importance of Mecca. Yes, the SA regime has truckloads of money, but I'd guess it's all locked in foreign countries under control of members of the currently ruling family - so if the regime were to fall, vast loads of Saudi-Arabian money would not be available in the country any more.

bmh_ca 10y ago
SA has $117 bn in treasuries. https://www.ft.com/content/c1569904-1c14-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122 https://www.ft.com/content/c1569904-1c14-11e6-b286-cddde55ca...
- mschuster91 10y ago
  The question is: who helds authority over which part of the assets of the Saudi state assets? If it's members of the ruling family, good luck collecting the assets. Even if it's a central bank, assets might not neccessarily be safe from theft during a coup. We've seen this all too often already.
ende 10y ago
Israel and the Saudis are pretty close allies. To the extent that the two have plotted out air corridors by which Israel jets could fly through to bomb Iran.