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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Ilaine who wrote (204629)9/29/2006 1:35:11 AM
From: Bilow  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
Hi CobaltBlue; Re: "If OPEC tried to turn off the spigot to America but continued to export oil to our trading partners, we could buy it from them, as oil is fungible."

You're simply wrong on this, and in more than just the misuse of the word "fungible".

If it were always possible for a willing buyer of oil to obtain oil from a willing seller, then how could Iraq have been prevented from selling oil back before the invasion?

Re: "If OPEC turns off the spigot to the entire world, and we die, they die from lack of income."

The problem with your thinking is that you are unable to come up with anything more than two possible actions for OPEC. If OPEC were that stupid, sure, you'd be right. But OPEC has other alternatives. The simplest one is to offer to sell oil only to those countries that would be unwilling to then sell it to the United States. They have a history of doing similar sorts of things regarding doing business with companies that do business with Israel.

Re: "... we can still produce enough oil for necessities, but not necessarily luxuries."

Yes, I agree. The US is in no danger of being unable to bring in the crops. But it would be ugly and OPEC can pull it off while still exporting oil. Unless you can figure out a way of forcing, for example, China to resell oil to the US at reasonable prices.

-- Carl
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