Have you heard of this new theorist -- Keynes, I think?
> It is true that it would've been bad for the US economy if Saddam had
counquered Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and decided to turn the spigot off--but
> he probably wouldn't have decided to turn the spigot off.
I'm not talking just about that. I'm talking about propping up all the oil despots, who serve to keep "our" oil out of "their" people's hands.
> What's deluded is the thought that (as DeLong might put it) the US economy
> needs cheap Chiquita bananas to prosper.
Neither the United States nor any other general agglomeration of people needs a poor Third World to survive. But that is exactly the point -- our power elite does need exactly that, and they dominate our economies and countries. Hence, until we rid ourselves of their dominance, I'm afraid that "our" economies (Canada's included) do indeed depend on cheap Third World commodities. I would have thought this point would be obvious to LBO-ers. It certainly is to the business class.