U.S. to Release Oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve
June 23rd, 2011Spit balls. Noise level. Clown antics.
Via: CNBC:
But enough on oil, because that’s not what this is really about anyway.
It’s about the White House finally recognizing what millions of American families already know: the economy is still too weak, the recovery too slow, and they need to try something new.
That’s bad news, but the worse news is that there probably isn’t much that the White House, Fed, OPEC, HUD or any other acronym can do to fix it. Even the combined might of the President and Ben Bernanke can’t overcome millions of deleveraging American households.
I’m thinking of this in the context of Iran…OPEC seems to have split into two factions, one of which includes Iran, and wants higher prices. Saudi is floating the idea of promoting lower oil prices as a way to hit Iran where it hurts, since that country is so heavily dependant on oil revenue – Prince al-Walid bin Talal was much criticized for his comments on a Saudi preference for a sustained lower price, and Prince Turki al-Faysal was quite blunt in saying recently that Iran could be “squeezed” through a manipulation of oil prices, very surprising since they have always rejected using oil as strategic weapon.
Note that an administration official said that this was being done “with full consultation with the major producing countries. It’s intended to complement the effort of many countries, including Saudi Arabia.” Others also emphasized the co-ordination with OPEC. And yet some OPEC members seem to have been caught off guard and are speaking out pretty strongly. Notably though Saudi (heading the other OPEC faction) has been silent…