Confessions of an Economics Hitman

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Answer me one thing, LoA. What's Saudi Arabia going to do with the dollars, if not spend it on the worthless **** we have on offer?

spend it on projects which improved the poor, not projects which solidified the position of the House of Saud. These projects were there to solidify their position domestically but weaken them internationaly, thus making them dependant on us instead of the other way around. that was the goal of MAIN, and they accomplished that.

"I had been part of the team that crafted the deal of the century, the deal that changed the course of world history but never reached the newspapers. I helped create a covenant that guranteed continued oil for America, safeguarded the rule of the House of Saud, and assissted in the financing of Osama bin Laden and the protection of international criminals like Uganda's Idi Amin." (pg 137)

[DanS]

That's right. Hire an American company to build a shopping mall in the middle of the desert using American labor, equipment and materials. Fill it with all of the useless **** we produce (hey, if it's good enough for Americans, it good enough for Saudis, right?). Hire Phillipinos who like to get paid in dollars to work at Gap Saudi.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

ha haaaaa. i DanSed you !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DanS]

making them dependant on us instead of the other way around.

It is an essential feature of the international oil trade that we are dependent on each other. Period.

[Ted Striker]

Gap Saud

Trying to find out what's going on underneath those burkhas.

Getting hand chopped off.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

It is an essential feature of the international oil trade that we are dependent on each other. Period.

and i get that. but you gotta see the sinister side of this deal. this was calculated into making them not just dependant on say goods and services, but dependant with regard to their national security, and their rule as a dynasty. In return for us protecting them and allowing them to do as they please with their people, they had to accept all the things in the plan and invest millions in US contractors.

Their dependance politically means we get oil stability (no more shocks) and millions for US contractors and the military-indsutrial complex.

[DanS]

You can't pick and choose your dependencies. We are dependent on Saudi Arabia for our national security, for political stability, and economic stability. They are dependent on us in like measure. There's nothing sinister about it, although we may hate the consequences.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

maybe im not being clear. before the project, the House of Saud could do what the pleased with oil prices. Consequently, they were able to create supply shocks and play with the market at will even though we were buying oil from them.

So we have a situation where the US is buying oil but cannot influence their policies with regard to oil prices.

This projects goal was to continue buying oil, but to influence their policies with regard to oil prices. And to do that, they made the House of Saud dependant on the US politically and militarily, thus taking away their power over prices, and making millions for US contractors at the expense of the Saudi people.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

jeez ted, is tho book for real? are torrijos and roldas as good as the seem? did the cia and ronald reagan really take them out?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Early in 1981, the Roldos administration [in Ecuador] presented its hydrocarbons law to the Ecaudorian Congress. If passed, it would reform the countries relation with the oil companies. It was considered radical and revolutionary. Its influence would stretch into much of Latin America.

The oil companies reacted strongly - their public relations people vilified Jaime Roldos. They swept in Washington and Quito, armed with briefcases full of bribes and threats. They painted the first democratically elected politician in Ecuador as a modern day Castro. But Roldos did not back down. He denounced the link between politics, oil, and religion. He accused the Summer Institute of Linguistics of colluding with the oil companies, and ordered the SIL out of the country. The EHMs had failed.

Weeks after expelling the SIL missionaries, the president of Ecuador threatened to remove all foreign interets unless they implemented plans that would help Ecuador's poor. After a major speech in Quito, he headed off to a small community in southern Ecuador.

He died there in a fiery helicopter crash, on May 24th 1981. The jackals had succeeded where the EHMs had not.

The new president, Osvaldo Hurtado, allowed the SIL back into the country, and allowed the oil companies to continue their drilling and exploration. (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man 156 - 157)

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by DanS
Answer me one thing, LoA. What's Saudi Arabia going to do with the dollars, if not spend it on the useless **** we have on offer?

Buy the useless **** of others.

Edit: more seriously, they could have invested this money on the future, such as universities and useful infrastructure (one of the emirates is doing so). The Sauds prefer to waste their money on shiny cars, shiny military aircraft, and shiny trashbins, but it's not the only possible use for the tsunami of dollars. Especially when you're a freaking desert that has nothing but oil and oil rigs.

[Az]

Edit: more seriously, they could have invested this money on the future, such as universities and useful infrastructure (one of the emirates is doing so). The Sauds prefer to waste their money on shiny cars, shiny military aircraft, and shiny trashbins, but it's not the only possible use for the tsunami of dollars. Especially when you're a freaking desert that has nothing but oil and oil rigs.

How will Dubai's Disneyworld fare in the long run still remains to be seen.

[Spiffor]

I was more thinking about the huge university (the "city of knowledge" that was recently built in one of the microstates.

[Az]

There are plenty of unis in the arab world. It's their quality which is lacking. We'll see whether Dubai ( you're probably referring to dubai) will be different.