World Views

The leadership might bicker and fume at North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un, but it’s a smokescreen. By warring with North Korea, there is no takeaway as grand a prize as winning a mother lode of black gold—Oil. The real prize is Iran. The oil surplus in the Middle East remains the highest in regional crude oil, and that increased further in 2016. And it might be noteworthy that the world oil demand grew by 1.7%, which was less than 2015 when oil prices fell dramatically and the increased demand was only 2.2%. The United States, though, continues to be the world’s largest consumer of oil. And this is no small fact.  Based on current data, there is an indication that China is on the ascent in oil consumption, but for the time being, this nation is years away from achieving the U.S consumption rate.

The Iranian “Spring”:  Will We Ever Learn? Once again, we are witnessing the ancient truth (going back to Plato).  It seems that humankind is doomed endlessly to re-live an age-old story and then promptly forget it.  The root cause of the Arab Spring was desperation, coupled with a failure of leadership.  Iran represents only a variation on this common theme.Every organized society is, in effect, a “collective survival enterprise.”  Our basic needs lie at the heart of our implicit social contract. Any regime that does not understand this biologically-based “common good” and act accordingly is ultimately doomed.