WHO'S HURTING FROM LOWER OIL PRICES ?
This came from a longer article about the lower oil prices and how it's effecting Iran and Venezuela:
Effects in Iran:
There's a suspicion on the commodity markets and on Wall Street that the Saudis want $50 oil, instead of $60 oil, because the lower price hurts their regional rival, Iran. In Iran right now, the average salary is just $100 a month -- and if you work for a state-subsidized business, you sometimes don't get paid even that for months. An estimated 40% of the 70 million people live in poverty, and inflation in 2006 ran at 16%, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (take it with however much salt you require).
And those were the good times, when oil sold for $65 to $70 a barrel. No wonder that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who ran on a promise to improve Iran's economy (among other things), is facing demonstrations in the street amid signs that he has lost the support of Iran's religious leaders.
And no wonder the Saudis are thinking that lower oil prices might create enough havoc at home that Iran would have to pull in its horns in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.
Venezuela's dilemma:
I'm pretty sure the Saudis wouldn't cry a single tear if lower oil prices created domestic problems for President Ahmadinejad's good buddy President Hugo Ch?vez of Venezuela. Already sinking oil revenues -- from lower prices and mismanagement that has cut national oil production -- have caused Ch?vez to think the unthinkable in Venezuela: He has proposed raising the price of gasoline.
Effects in Iran:
There's a suspicion on the commodity markets and on Wall Street that the Saudis want $50 oil, instead of $60 oil, because the lower price hurts their regional rival, Iran. In Iran right now, the average salary is just $100 a month -- and if you work for a state-subsidized business, you sometimes don't get paid even that for months. An estimated 40% of the 70 million people live in poverty, and inflation in 2006 ran at 16%, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (take it with however much salt you require).
And those were the good times, when oil sold for $65 to $70 a barrel. No wonder that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who ran on a promise to improve Iran's economy (among other things), is facing demonstrations in the street amid signs that he has lost the support of Iran's religious leaders.
And no wonder the Saudis are thinking that lower oil prices might create enough havoc at home that Iran would have to pull in its horns in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.
Venezuela's dilemma:
I'm pretty sure the Saudis wouldn't cry a single tear if lower oil prices created domestic problems for President Ahmadinejad's good buddy President Hugo Ch?vez of Venezuela. Already sinking oil revenues -- from lower prices and mismanagement that has cut national oil production -- have caused Ch?vez to think the unthinkable in Venezuela: He has proposed raising the price of gasoline.
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I'm all for starving the Persians into submission, bring on the cheap gas. 0
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