Re: An Economic Question

[Clifford Poirot <cpoirot@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You make a good point Colin, in so far as people focus narrowly on the U.S.
ability to buy oil.

I agree, the drive is to maintain hegemony. Yet maintenance of hegemony
requires a secure economic base, which in an industrialized, fossil fuel
based economy, means secure access to oil. I believe one must ask on what
terms does the U.S. feel it needs secure access to oil. There are of course
other options for the U.S. to maintain hegemony-including a policy that
gradually begins to wean the U.S. away from fossil fuel dependence. What has
happened that determines a hegemonic strategy premised on the need to
maintain access to cheal fossil fuel?

Some have suggested that a quick U.S. victory in Iraq could lead to access
to oil at under $20 a barrel for the long term. The implications of U.S.
access to oil on these terms is profound-low inflation, the ability to grow
without hitting an inflationary spiral, the maintenance of profit rates
(among other possible effects).

I can conceive of explanations based on public choice type theories or
Marxist theories as to why the foreign policy establishment might prefer
this strategy to the exploration of alternative fuel sources.

What does an axiomatic Post-Keynesian interpretation have to say about such
potentially critical political economic events?

-----Original Message-----
From: Colin Danby [mailto:danby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 11:29 PM
To: pkt
Subject: Re: An Economic Question


Dear Hank:

As your own reasoning suggests, the premise that "the U. S. is really
only interested in oil insofar as Iraq is concerned" is false. This is
about hegemony.  In general efforts to explain U.S. government actions
abroad as efforts to grab natural resources have scant explanatory power.

Venezuela's elected government would love to sell the US lots of oil,
but is hindered by an internal campaign (which the Bush administration
apparently supports) to force it from office.

Best, Colin

____________________________________________
Colin Danby
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
University of Washington, Bothell
(425) 352-5285
fax (425) 352-5335
danby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.bothell.washington.edu/IAS/danby/
____________________________________________