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3 Misconceptions That Need to Die
- gregw100 15y agoThanks for that. It was a real eye-opener. I knew that China's debt stake was less than everybody complains about, but I didn't know the exact numbers. Sometimes we need a little dose of perspective.
- winestock 15y agoFrom the article: Fact: Just 9.2% of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from the Middle East. That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible. Thanks to the arbitrage guys, a barrel of oil sells for one price worldwide. That means that a severe shortage in one oil-exporting country can have large effects on the price of oil everywhere else. I don't have enough expertise to argue with the other claims, but if the author misses an important point like the fungibility of commodities, then I will be agnostic about the rest of the article.
- anamax 15y ago> That number is small comfort. Petroleum is fungible. Oil is fungible because of US govt policy. The US govt could decide that oil doesn't leave the Western Hemisphere. A lot of folks would be upset by such a policy but they lack the means to change it.