M.N. Gordon takes up a familiar SLL theme: the ability to wage violence is becoming ever more dispersed and decentralized. Witness the Houthis. From Gordon at economicprism.com:
You may not know this. It wasn’t widely reported. Certainly, it is something the elites in Davos would rather not acknowledge.
In late 2023, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude oil production hit an all-time high. Reaching 13.25 million barrels per day in September 2023.
What’s especially remarkable about this new all-time high is that as recently as 2010, monthly crude oil production in the U.S. was just 5 million barrels per day.
We all know the story of this extraordinary turnaround. Oil extraction advancements in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have allowed U.S. oil producers to deliver an abundance of oil to consumers.
These improvements in drilling efficiency have led to record production, at competitive prices, while using fewer oil rigs. Moreover, this record production has been attained in the face of the Biden administration’s restrictive oil and gas policies.
This abundance of U.S. oil, and the price it’s being delivered to market at, has resulted in higher exports to Europe and Asia. In fact, rising U.S. exports of crude oil to Asia were a major factor in the decision by Saudi Arabia to cut its oil prices for Asian buyers last year. Intense competition from U.S. oil producers forced Saudi Arabia to fight for its market share.
Given the many geopolitical challenges the U.S. is facing, including the Russo-Ukrainian war and the Israel-Hamas war, record U.S. crude oil production is a critical reason oil prices remained moderate throughout 2023. This has, in essence, neutralized the pricing leverage of Saudi Arabia and Russia over oil markets. OPEC+ has lost its stranglehold on global oil prices.
Relax, we have the Boeing engineers and huge numbers of scientists and tech nerds are crossing the border by the hour.
We won’t be the first or last society to be destroyed from within.