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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (387904)	6/2/2008 1:40:38 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575450

JF, > So a market where 80% of the participants are governments, and even where it is not in government hands is highly subsidized, is a "free market"? Depends on who the players are. You're claiming that American Big Oil gets a lot of subsidies, a theme repeated throughout the Democratic campaign. Yet no mention of the taxes Big Oil shells out to federal, state, and local governments: taxfoundation.org About $100 billion as of 2004. Probably a lot higher these days as Big Oil reports record revenues. Tenchusatsu

To: Road Walker who wrote (387904)	6/2/2008 2:00:30 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575450

There is a potential arab/persian split there and the iraqis are more secular so far and not ruled by ayotollahs (yet). Also unless the shiaa want a complete split with sunnis and a resumption of civil war like conditions, compromises with the maliki regime and the US are possible for folks like sistani, albeit harder to form with al sadr. I just wouldnt make the assumption that iraq is in irans hip pocket just yet. Iraqi shiaa know that their bretheren in iran are not happy with the current regime and ayo rule so shiaa rule in iran doesnt have to make the same mistakes.

To: Road Walker who wrote (387904)	6/2/2008 2:18:13 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575450

Tied to Iran? No, Maliki and Sistani aren't going to go the Iranian mullah route. The Iraqi government has more support in its country than the mullahs do in Iran. How do you know that??? Iraqi's have a lot more in common with Iran than the US. You can bet that at the least the southern Shiites will be tied at the hip with Iran, hell they already are. No, the Iraqi Shiites are Arab and the Iraqi Shiite religious leadership, led by Ayatollah Sistani, aren't the power mad type who run Iran. So a market where 80% of the participants are governments, and even where it is not in government hands is highly subsidized, is a "free market"? Jeez I would like to sell you on National Health Insurance being a "free market"... you are easy. Yep. The international oil market is free. Many of the market participiants aren't normal profit seekers though, but hamstrung by their domestic politics. I suspect you are looking for an excuse to abandon the market mechanism.