Oil and Finance
The Epic Corruption
by
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OIL COMPANY PROFITS AND OUR NATIONAL SECURITY
January 26, 2006
Not long from now, oil companies will be reporting their year-end profits. They will show massive gains over the past year. This week ConocoPhillips reported a jump of 66 percent in earnings to $13.5 billion. As ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and others report their profits, this story will be strikingly reinforced.
A simple fact needs be stated and understood. The greater the profits of these oil companies, the greater the risk to our national security. The logic behind this is straightforward. Higher oil company profits go hand in hand with higher oil prices (now in excess of $65/bbl). Higher oil prices result in a massive transfer of wealth to hostile nations that fund the dissemination of hate-filled preaching calling for the demise of the United States and the West. Higher oil prices enable the activities of dysfunctional governments that are tyrannical to their own populations and, in an era marked by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, are increasingly dangerous to the world at large.
We are led to believe by the oil patch pundits that company profits are a fair reflection of free markets at work. They are not.
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About the Book
These political essays, which originally appeared in the Huffington Post, chronicle the financial and environment malfeasance of the oil industry during the last five years.
Oil is a commodity that is essential to the world’s economic well-being. But it is also an industry rife with corruption. In OIL AND FINANCE, author Raymond J. Learsy chronicles the problems within the oil industry and details how these issues affect both US and global politics.
Culled from a collection of essays that first appeared in the Huffington Post throughout the last five years, OIL AND FINANCE provides an illuminating understanding about where we’ve been and where we’re headed as a nation with respect to our fossil-fuel consumption, our environment, our financial system, our security, and our place on the global stage. It uncovers the truth behind oil pricing—including its speculation and manipulation, the politics of oil and its impact on our security, oil’s influence on our domestic and foreign policies, OPEC’s success, and the menacing impact of oil on the environment.
OIL AND FINANCE presents a real-time account of a nation in crisis. Filled with contemplations and reactions, it is also a call to arms and a battle plan. It communicates how we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, develop alternative energy sources, stabilize our economy, shore up our national security—and prosper as a people.
About the Author
RAYMOND J. LEARSY is a member of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His analysis of the international oil trade has been featured in the New York Times, the Pipeline & Gas Journal, National Review Online, the Huffington Post, and on CNBC. This is his second book.