Arioch i have been reading all of your posts surrounding world affaris and politics and it has really got me thinking...
"Also, if you've noticed that Wed/Thurs, OPEC reduced the flow of oil by about 8%. There is no glut right now, as a matter fact there is a shortage. Motive? Election pressure. By squeezing the US economy, they are trying to push swing voters into the "non-bush" camp by affecting pocket books."
OPEC and other oil producing countries are not necessarilly "squeezing" the US economy through oil restrictions. People have to remember the key variable; gold, oil, silver, and all other commodities are traded in US Dollars. Over the past 18 months the US dollar has depreciated against every major currency (with the exception of the Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen, for which i will explain in a few sentences). A weaker US dollar increases other countries purchasing power for US goods and more importantly world basic materials. This leads to a natural increase in the price of gold (which people blame the inflation fears on its rise) and the price of oil per barrel.
The problem is that the US economy is tied so much to the rest of the world, i.e. when we sniffle the world coughs, and when we cough, countries like Japan and other developed markets puke. Despite OPEC slashing output, i can guarantee Russia will increase their output. Russia is second in net GDP growth next to China in local currency, over the past three years. Russia cannot afford to lose money for development of their own country by reducing their oil output at a time when the price of oil is so high.
The sad thing is that with current GDP growth in various countries (some of us do look globally, not just locally), there is 11 years left of US dominance economically.
The United States will always continue to dictate the economic policy of the world for my lifetime and those to follow. Everything pours out of the US that is used by every other country, from investments (buying US Treasuries) to purchasing out finished goods. Many currencies outside of the United States are pegged to the US Dollar (i.e. China). Remember when i had mentioned that the CHinese Yuan hadnt appreciated much in relation to the US Dollar? That is beacuase the Chinese government has been buying up US Dollars on the open market (to the tune of over 3 billion over the past 18monmths) so it can support its own growth and keep its output high. The Japanese have been doing the same thing, buying up US Dollars (over 2 billion) to keep the Yen high to support its exporting companies and to keep their GDP positive and to prevent another wave of deflation. If you look at those statistics, by having the Chinese and Japanese buying up dollars and purchase US Treasury Bonds, they have completely financed the Iraqi invasion for us.
Everyone can attempt to blame the Bush government for a poor economy etc etc etc, but in reality we are now just paying the hangover for the Clinton party. Any economic major can tell you that policies and economic environment has a lag effect. i.e. what you do today will not take effect until 3-5 years out. Also, one of the many different economic models state that to increase and improve growth, you must spend money short term to spark government spending and then trickles down to corporate then to common people through created jobs and an increase in payrolls. This is slightly taking effect right now as the latest job report and new farm payrolls increased by over 350k jobs.
I see an extremely dangerous precedent here. Effecting govt elections through the use of terror, and/or economic terror.
I suspect there is a very high chance that the domestic US election is a target of terrorists. They may try to impose their election choice on us this way.
Believe me there are no perfect solutions to any economic, political, or global solution. The problem i see it is that political agendas in America are FAR too short. What happens is current and future administrations are SO short term focused. They only care about what is going to affect them over the current 4 years and what they need to do to get re-elected so they can push more garbage down peoples throats.
