I just listened to a podcast of Marshall Goldman regarding the Russian economy. He, like Chris Doss over at LBOtalk, emphasizes the importance of rising oil prices for Russia. http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3115
This lecture got me thinking about Peter Schweitzer, a media fellow at the Hoover Institution. Schweitzer tells how William Casey conspired with Saudi Arabia to drop oil prices to destroy the Soviet Union. I post the source below, but anyway, the idea occurred to me that had to Communists held on a bit longer, unit the oil price exploded, there might be only one superpower in the world -- and it might not be the US. OK. That is a stretch, but I think it serves as an antidote to the triumphal blather about the demise of communism. Schweizer, Peter. 1994. Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union (NY: Atlantic Monthly Press). 31: William Casey met with Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia. He showed him raw intelligence reports to make him fearful about Saudi security. "What Casey was trying to do was to send a prince a message. No single world oil producer had a greater effect on world oil prices than Saudi Arabia." "By raising the issues of oil pricing and the U.S. -- Saudi security relationship in the same conversation, Casey was in effect saying that the two were related. It was an element of the Reagan strategy. "We wanted lower oil prices, "recalls Weinberger. "That's one of the reasons we were selling them arms"." citing an interview with the author. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
