The Oil Drum

You know, I wonder if the Russians learned how to be capitalists from reading Marx, or just decided to use OPEC as a model of how to make money in the oil bazaar.

But one thing I am pretty sure of - the Russians know what they have in the ground, and they will do with it whatever they feel like.

Nice to see the Russians leaving their socialist past behind,  proving they understand that charging what the market will bear is only the first step in making sure a fool and their money is soon parted.

Do you ever think the reality of this situation will penetrate into the believers of the invisible hand of the free market? How long before their principles go away when they figure out what side of the market they are really on?

Time to watch the markets go to work, I guess, creative destruction and all. Lucky the Russians have finally joined in, isn't it?

As a side note - the Europeans are quite active in Northern Africa in terms of natural gas projects, but the Russians are a much bigger market in terms of exports - notice the relationship between Germany and Russia, to give you an idea who is likely to absorb at least some of Germany's exports if the American economy stumbles badlym (and these days, the Russians pay in real things, not merely promises written on Federal Reserve notes). The free hand of the market looks great when it is giving you things, but it looks very different when it is taking them away. Which may be an explanation of why so many people only agree with invisible hands stroking their bank accounts, but not strangling their future.

Of course, maybe the Russians are dusting off some of their old plans of how to dominate the West, ca. 1980, and haven't really become capitalists at all. Nah, that is too absurd - a former KGB officer is certainly the sort of person I would trust to defend democracy and free markets world wide. Wouldn't you? And for the thoughtful out there - do you think Germany has been investing major amounts of money in renewable energy merely out of the goodness of its heart, trying to make the world a better place? Germany is not really a believer in the invisible hand when it comes down to important things like preserving itself into the future.