Break the Oil Cartel

Break OPEC. OPEC is a cartel, a very successful cartel. They have been able to keep the price of oil much, much higher than the production costs. I do not suggest this to bring the price of oil, and therefor the price of gasoline down, but rather to deprive our sworn enemies of the enormous stream of revenue that is flowing into their countries.

There used to be a coffee cartel. JFK got it started in the early sixties. It flourished for a number of years, and it was the primary reason that your choice of coffee was Folger's or Maxwell House. This cartel finally collapsed about ten years ago, and now you have a plethora of coffees and coffee shops. Google found another article about JFK and the coffee cartel, but when I followed the link I found that access was restricted. If access is restricted, how does Google know the article is in there?

Now that you have had your coffee, let us get back to the business at hand: OPEC and the Middle East. As long as I can remember, it seems that the Middle East has been in turmoil. You can point to any number of factors, the heat, the poverty, the arrogance of taking Arab land and giving it to the Jews (to found the state of Israel. Let's not argue about whether this was a good idea or not, my only point is that the Arabs have been complaining about it.), American arrogance in our conduct of our foreign policy. But the real problem is we have been pouring enormous sums of money into the area, more than they have any idea of what to do with it. You have heard perhaps about the story about the solid gold camel saddle with 17 Rolex watches embedded in it? So what do you do about it?

Stop sending them money. But they will cut off the oil you say. Right, as if they could. I doubt they would even know where the oil is, much less how to turn it off. The only people who do any actual work over there work for foreign corporations. Just do not send any more money. If they complain, first of all, deny. That should buy us a couple of months. When that runs dry, prevaricate: tell them the check's in the mail, there was some kind of foul up. With a skillful telling, that might last a year. When that story runs out, ask them what they are going to do about it? It might lead to war, but recent history has shown that in open warfare the Arabs can't fight their way out of a box. And in a year, they will have spent all their ready money. Yell boo, and the thieves will scurry off with their loot.