> There's a war premium in oil prices right now,
but I don't think that it matters much for pricing who "controls" the oil.
It's a global and
mostly competitive market where prices are set
by spot and futures traders. I think Chomsky is right that the U.S. is hot to
"control" the oil for strategic reasons - for leverage over Japan and the EU,
mainly. If oil were quoted in a basket of dollars, euros, and yen, it might
have an effect on our economy, but not a major one. And an important reason
it's quoted in dollars now is that this is the biggest market, and the best
place to invest the cash.
>
> Doug
>
So back to the original question. What are we talking about in terms of a
vision of the ME? Palestinian statehood, a Kurdish state, democracy in Saudi
Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait? Israeli settlers moved by force (by generous monetary
"incentive") out of the occupied territories? What else?
Christian