Fitzgerald: The price of oil, and how it got there
from Jihad Watch

The price of oil is now very high, and it became very high very rapidly. Some blame "speculators," without realizing how small is the amount of money that speculators take -- see Philip K. Verleger -- while almost all of the rise in price goes to the oil-producing states. It would hardly be surprising, either, to discover that the Saudis and other Arabs were in fact behind some of these speculators, and were even employing them. After all, the speculators not only run the price up, but become the object of criticism that deflects from fury at this handful of plutocratic states.

These states, by the way, have far tinier native populations than they give out. The real populations of Qatar, with its natural gas, and the constituent parts of the U.A.E., for example, are at most a few hundred thousand, with Qatar being far less. This means the per-capita take is even greater than has been given out. If the real figure were to be known, it might increase the fury against these statelets, and people might begin thinking that all of these places could be taken over by a well-armed Western brigade or two, backed by air support. Saudi Arabia consistently exaggerates its native population, for fear that others would realize just how weak, how vulnerable, and how very very rich, its population is.
Continue reading "Fitzgerald: The price of oil, and how it got there"
Posted by Hugh at 6:16 AM Comments (38)

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021438.php

Also, be sure to see . . .

Pissed off by the price of gas?--gasoline, petrol, gasolina?
(click on the post title above)

. . . if you haven't read it yet
tells you all about the Saudis, how they got the oil, etc.

http://islamicdanger4u.blogspot.com/2008/01/pissed-off-by-price-of-gas-gasoline.html