Iraq

[Terrance]

prozak at anus.com wrote:
> 
> > Oil hasn't been important to getting rich
> > in the global economy since W.W.II. Look at Japan and Germany. Neither
> > has any oil and both have gotten quite rich without it.
> 
> Yes, because neither is a superpower. 

What has being a superpower to do with it? Nothing. 
This is a true story. When I was a young kid on wall street I decided to
buy one billion dollars in United States 30 year Treasuries at auction.
I put in a bid at the Federal Reserve. It was an aggressive bid.
Although interest rates were dropping on a weekly basis as the Fed was
cutting rates (Reaganomics had begun)--rates were then around 14% at the
end of an inverted UST yield curve and the prime rate was around 20%,
the DJIA was around 800-1,000. Can you imagine that under Reaganomics
interest rates were slashed from 20% to 6% while inflation was brought
under control and unemployment rates dropped like a stone as the stock
market climbed, doubled and tripled in value! I didn't buy any bonds.
The Japanese bought the auction, again. The Japanese were  buying UT
paper aggressively. Eventually they were the only buyer because no one
could compete with them.  The US was funding its economy with Japanese
Yen. Next, the Japanese decided that they didn't want to have to put on
hedges to protect their investment  in dollar denominated securities.
The Japanese demanded that the US issue its debt in Yen. The US, thank
god, never issued its debt in Yen or any other currency. But the point
is that the Japanese were so powerful in the world economy that they had
the United States by the balls. OPEC knows what the balls of the United
States feel like too. They too have put the the balls of this powerful
Nation in a vice. But both OPEC and Japan have lost their grip. The
miracle Japanese economy has seen 20 years of rescession and lacks the
political will to get out of it. OPEC has lost its power too. While the
US and it's oil dependent allies have suffered one oil crisis after
another at the hands of men like Kuadafi and Saddam, those days too are
long gone and over with. But, now back to the superpowerful economies of
Germany and Japan. Japan became a superpower economy without possessing
any oil. However, it could not possibly have become a superpower economy
without it. In fact, of all the things that made the Japanese "catch up"
phase a "miracle economy" oil is the most important. Not the possession
of oil because the only way for Japan to possess oil would be to take it
from another nation. Same with Germany. Both tried that already and they
were both stopped. So, the US doesn't want or need Saddam's oil to grow
rich or to maintain its hegemony. The possession of oil is not a factor.
If it were, we would need to consider that the US is itself a major oil
nation and major energy producer. While the US is also the biggest
consumer, she buys most of her energy, like everything else she buys,
from Americans. So, the US has not interest in Saddam's oil. That's just
paranoid middle eastern and war mongering propaganda. Germany and France
and Russia are more interested in Saddam's oil because they have tons of
money tied into it. The US is in a very powerful position. Despite a
mild recession (a natural bust after a boom extended and exacerbated by
9-11) the US economy is a locomotive with a full head of steam. Europe
has some serious problems and so does Japan and her pact. 
The US is perhaps 100 years ahead of a united europe. Me, I'm betting on
the united states of Mexico and Brazil. Americans have plenty of oil. I
wish the United States would focus on Mexico and the rest of America.
9-11 really screwed us Americans and now Europe expects us to keep our
military stationed in the middle east to protect their oil while the
radical Arabs take shots at out soldiers and blow up our financial
centers? 
FFFFFForgetabout it. There is your urgency. Let's get this crap over
with and get on with what really matters to Americans--free trade across
american borders.