The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for managing your business in a recession Part 7 of 28 Geopolitical Opportunities; The hypothesis of Economic Warfare

Things are never what they appear to be, especially in geopolitics. Former Forbes writer and business and energy journalist Jim (or James) Norman, who wrote the book- The Oil Card, and blew the whistle on Enron with the SEC, argues that the United States manipulated the price of oil as a kind of economic weapon against countries such as Russia and China, implying that it overtly uses oil as an economic weapon of financial destruction, and that we, the  car drivers and gas consumers in the West are just collateral damage in this economic warfare game. In the futures exchange (NYMEX), an unlimited amount of money from pension funds was used to overwhelm short sellers of crude oil, as a way of running up the price, he explained. China was hurt by higher oil prices much more than the United States, and has experienced reduced exports, the closing of factories, and massive unreported unemployment, he noted.

The opposite technique, the lowering of oil prices, is currently wrecking the Russian economy, Norman suggested. Russia has little besides its natural resources, and the softening of the crude market could eventually force regime change there, and in China he said.The real reason America went to war with Iraq was because of China, and it had nothing to do with WMD or terrorism, Norman asserted. As sanctions were lifting in 2003, Saddam was going to cut a deal with China so they could acquire ownership of underground oil fields, and the US sought to prevent this, he said. While the US is propping up India as a foil to China, Russia is now moving in a direction of realigning with China, against the US and Western interests, he added.

[N.B. BusinessWeek speculates that India's  growth may outpace China's economic growth--Walter Derzko]

Norman provides some fascinating, logical common sense insights on what could happen next in the global geopolitical space. He gets you thinking about some probable what-if scenarios and what the resulting consequences might be and where the business opportunities might emerge.

YouTube - Economic Warfare Jim Norman (N.B. each part is about a 10 minutes long segment which is part of a longer radio interview)

Part 1;  Part 2;   Part 3;  Part 4 ; Part 5;   Part 6;  Part 7;  Part 8;  Part 9;  Part 10;  Part 11

Here's a plug for his book: The Oil Card -Global Economic Warfare in the 21st Century By James R. Norman

Challenging the conventional wisdom surrounding high oil prices, this compelling argument sheds an entirely new light on free-market industry fundamentals. By deciphering past, present, and future geopolitical events, it makes the case that oil pricing and availability have a long history of being employed as economic weapons by the United States. Despite ample world supplies and reserves, high prices are now being used to try to rein in China—a reverse of the low-price strategy used in the 1980s to deprive the Soviets of hard currency. Far from conspiracy theory, the debate notes how the U.S. has previously used the oil majors, the Saudis, and market intervention to move markets—and shows how this is happening again. This compact and unorthodox analysis will appeal to a broad audience—from energy consumers puzzled by intractably high oil prices to producers wondering how long windfall prices can defy gravity.

James R. Norman is a veteran business journalist and energy reporter. He is currently a contributing writer for McGraw-Hill's Platts Oilgram News. He has also written for Forbes, Business Week, and the Ann Arbor News, where he won an award for investigative reporting on an oil and gas scam. He lives in New York City.

Walter Derzko

Smart Economy

Toronto

Author of the soon-to-be-released book: Hard Times Golden Opportunities.. about opportunity recognition in a recession/ depression features 45 opportunity scenarios.

 

Related posts in this series:

The Opportunity Clinic -  28 Tactics for managing your business in a recession Part 7 of 28  Geopolitical Opportunities;

The Opportunity Clinic; 28 Tactics for managing your Business in a recession Part 6 of 28 What's in your Recession Playbook?

The Opportunity Clinic; 28 Tactics for Managing your Business in a Recession Part 5 of 28 Category Killer Innovation-India's $10 laptop

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 4 of 28 “Left Behind “Opportunities- Go Green & Go Slow

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 3 of 28 Design Opportunities- Hope or Nostalgia

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 2 of 28 Innovation or Efficiency?

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28

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Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Author of the soon-to-be-released book: Hard Times Golden Opportunities.. about opportunity recognition in a recession/ depression features 45 opportunity scenarios.

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