This…this is huge. And precisely what Rothbard talked about qua cartels.
I’m unsure of the specific implications, actually. I’m assuming Rothbard would go into cartels in “Power & Market”? It might renew my determination to finally finish a book by him…
In Man, Economy and State too. But OPEC is a different sort of cartel. Yet, even in its case, the threat of one of the collaborators pulling out can be detrimental. It’s a nice illustration of this principle. Is it just me, by the way, or has this event received scant media attention?
-Jon
Not only the media not reporting on it, but my company’s fuel buyer did not even know about it until I talked with him a few minutes ago. So it seems to be all over the blogs, but not on a single valid news source. Doesn’t mean it did or din’t actually happen - but even reporting on a runaway rumor like this is a valid news story in and of itself.
I just love it how whenever someone is successful it is a bad thing. These countries have made money and that is a travesty. Now I may not agree with how OPEC is founded or works, but I just dont see how making money is a bad thing. The despise by the supposed “cultural elites” of the media of anyone who makes money is counterproductive, based on the goal of many people to support themselves.
Money=good
How is states being successful a good thing?
I meant on the individual level…hence I prefaced it with me not liking OPEC.
So? By your standards the US having lavish buildings would be a good thing?
It’s not a good thing because the money isn’t theirs to spend, simple.
Is it any different that these are sovereigns with 100’s of years of history on the land and using the resources. My question really is - and I have often pondered this - these “monarchies” are really tribal based, is the land not really their property - and therefor the resources under it.
I consider this different than in the US, where resources claimed by the fed are taken by force. These folks have had claim on the land for a long time. I don’t know the facts here, so don’t blast me.
The monarchies still used force to acquire the property, it may just have been longer ago, that doesn’t mean it’s rightfully theirs.
I didnt realize that the US was an individual. I always thought it was a country.
And I didn’t realise OPEC was an individual.
Yeah, sometimes I also get the impression people fail to notice the actual injustice taking place and put blame on malfeasors solely for being rich and having money, as if that is evil. Sort of like that idiotic canard “money is the root of all evil”.
-Jon
I didnt say they were. My point was that very often people make the claim that wealth is bad, and the fact that a news agency had reported such was no suprise. Thanks for trying to argue a moot point.
Nope, not you. I didn’t even see it on Digg nor on Google News feeds. This one is getting buried by someone who’s heavily invested in the major news outlets for sure.
There’s always the possibility it’s untrue, of course.
-Jon
Not really, because a normal oil cartel would have broken up long ago. OPEC exists only because they are national governments which have interests other than profits. But yeah, this is pretty much an example of why profit-seeking organizations cannot form a sustainable cartel.
But the fact still remains that, sooner or later, internal pressures rip apart cartels.
Well, the original blog post was reffering to a NYT article…