Oil Blackmail?

Gods.  I don't know if anybody reading this remembers the theory of "nuclear blackmail," which really isn't a theory as it turns out.  A link (you'll want to read this before you read the rest of this entry (please!)) is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_blackmail  You'll also want to read up (a bit) on "game theory."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory  Indeed, the book "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" (John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern) is required reading for any game theorist.  (I'm not one ... for the record.)

How about ... oil blackmail?  "OPEC chief warns of 'unlimited' oil prices if Iran is attacked."  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/10/business/opec.php

Their defence is that they can't make up for Iran's production.  Bollocks.  Utter bollocks.  They've got the United States by the testicles and they know it.  In this particular game, and make no mistake it is a game, most if not all of the actors are rational and therefore quite well aware of the consequences of their actions (or inactions.)

OPEC knows they can easily make up for Iran's production.  They know it.  All an outside observer has to do is study the production numbers to know that.  They also know they have the United States by the testicles and that we really don't want to pay higher petrol prices.  Is this, then, a form of blackmail?  Extortion?  Oil blackmail??

I'm not the only person to say these things.  Indeed, others before me have made very similar statements.  The politicians during the Arab Oil Embargo made their brave noises about "energy independence" and "alternative sources of energy" and then put their hands right back up the lobbyist's rectums.  Nothing got done. 

Now here we are again ... same problem.  Will anybody listen after this crisis is over? 

Probably not.