Prior to the oil embargo of 1973, the cost of a barrel of oil in today's dollars was about $23. In 1973, OPEC created an artificial scarcity, "economic rents",

Prior to the oil embargo of 1973, the cost of a barrel of oil in today's dollars was about $23. In 1973, OPEC created an artificial scarcity, "economic rents", in oil transferring and over the past five decades "robbed consumers" of trillions of dollars of wealth transferred to oil rich nations such as those in the Middle East. These "economic rents" not only harmed consumers but they helped certain oil rich nations such as Russia and Iran to invade other nations. The hope is that with US fracking and oil export, the days of more than $50 per barrel oil is over. It is estimated that the Arabs spent $1 trillion of wealth to combat Israel. Imagine, if instead of attempting to destroy Israel they had partnered with it investing in the "Startup Nation?" Had that happened, the Middle East may have been a very wealthy region for all of it's citizens. Historian Paul Johnson wrote an article in Commentary in 2005 called "The Anti-Semitic Disease" along these lines. [1] [1] https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Anti-Semitic-Disease-Johnson/65c0aa0fddb84641518c22aef8f409e95b4c3942 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Anti-Semitic-Disea...