heroine – The Burning Platform

I can’t figure out why we are so concerned about the Middle East. Can you?

If we are swimming in shale oil and our future is driver-less electric cars, why are we so concerned about the Middle East?

After 15 years in Afghanistan, the opium crop is at record high levels. How could that be? I thought we were there to modernize and democratize their country. At least heroine in the U.S. is now cheaper than a happy meal at McDonalds.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

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We’ll start with the obvious: the number one export for many countries here is crude oil or related petroleum products. Middle Eastern countries made up a significant portion of global oil export revenues during 2015 with shipments valued at $325 billion or 41.3% of global crude oil exports.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, and Oman were all among the top 15 exporters of crude oil in 2015. Russia and Kazakhstan, countries on the Central Asian part of the map, were also members of that same group.

Regimes in the region found that there were many other corollary benefits from this economic might. Unrest could be stifled by rising wealth, and these countries would also have more influence than they otherwise would in global affairs. Saudi Arabia is a good example in both cases, though a major driver of Saudi influence has been slipping in recent years.

Continue reading “THIS IS WHY WE ARE BRINGING “FREEDOM” TO THE MIDDLE EAST”

FUCK YOU DICK

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/09/2016 12:17 -0500

Just two months ago, former Fed President Dick Fisher admitted that “The Fed front-loaded an enormous market rally in order to create a wealth effect.” Today he is back, taking a victory lap onthe 7th anniversary of the crisis lows by explaining, rather stunningly, to CNBC that “we injected cocaine and heroin into the system” to enable a wealth effect (that he admits did not work, despite its success in raising asset prices), and “now we are maintaining it with ritalin.” Fisher also confirmed his previous warning that “The Fed is a giant weapon that has no ammunition left.”

Fisher explains how The Fed achieved its goals… but admits that didn’t really fix anything…

And here is CNBC’s higher quality (edited) version where the blame for everything is pinned on “feckless fiscal authorities…”

Once again, Fisher appears to be undertaking a major “cover-your-ass” episosde, proclaiming that he was against QE3 which is what has forced “valuations to be very richly priced.”