The First Time as Farce, the Second Time as Tragedy

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Paul Krugman is very worried about the economic implications of
surging oil prices thanks to the rising demand for oil (especially
due to the expansion of Chinese economy -- cf. "China, in particular,
still consumes only 8 percent of the world's oil -- but it accounted
for 37 percent of the growth in world oil consumption over the last
four years" [Paul Krugman, "The Oil Crunch Is Not Going to Go Away,"
New York Times, May 8, 2004]; and "China overtook Japan last year to
become the second biggest consumer after the United States, soaking
up about 5.49 million barrels a day [bpd] of the world market of
78.66 million bpd" [Felicia Loo/Reuters, "China's Oil Thirst Changes
Global Flows," Forbes, May 12, 2004]) and the increasing rarity of
discovery of major new oil reserves since 1976 except "two large
fields in Kazakhstan" (Krugman, May 14, 2004), compounded by war and
terrorism . . . . What does it all mean for the working class of the
world? . . . What about American workers in particular? . . . Will
Kerrynomics be the second coming of Clintonomics? . . . Or, given
Bush's trifecta legacy of war, deficit, and the crude shock, will we
have to rewrite Marx's formula: the first time as farce, the second
time as tragedy?  The full text at
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/05/first-time-as-farce-second-time-as.html>.
--
Yoshie

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