"The Epic Struggle for World Hegemony"

By Nigel H Maund

03/30/05 -

Overview

The war for commodities is central to the scramble for political

and economic survival of the US as the sole world hyperpower and

of the world to come according to its own model, rather than face a

where this cultural, economic and political hegemony is not only

but eclipsed by the growing industrial and geopolitical might of

As a consumer of 25% of the world's annual oil output, and the

largest importer of oil, the US is absolutely central to oil

Furthermore, given the geography and structure of the US

logistics system, no country's economy is more vulnerable than the US

serious dislocation in supplies or sustained rise in price. Hydrogen

electric powered vehicles and atomic fusion are years from becoming a
commercial and technologically viable alterative to oil, despite the
increasing sums spent on R & D.

Oil is only a part, albeit a big part, of the scramble for resources.

strategic minerals are also central to this great economic power game

as: platinum, nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, vanadium, chromium,
manganese, iron, molybdenum, tungsten and even such rust belt metals

and zinc. Several vital elements the US has to import. These are:

nickel, vanadium, uranium, chromium and iron and manganese. Three are

for steel making: iron, nickel and manganese. Vanadium can be added

also ran to this mix.

China, with a population equal to 4 times that of the US, at 1.2

has a potential demand that will put immense upward pressure on the

and demand for all commodities, to feed its unstoppable growth.

a population of 1 billion people, is slowly joining this race for
development. SE Asian nations are already well advanced along this

Singapore (4 million); Taiwan (22 million) and Korea (47 million)

the way, followed by Thailand (61 million); Malaysia (20 million) and
Vietnam (78 million) with the Philippines (85 million) and Indonesia

million) as the economic laggards. However, all these nations come

China's growing economic gravitational pull and influence, and all

significant Chinese expatriate populations, which dominate their

economies. Japan is beginning to rethink where it future lies. The

world has significantly changed, and, with it old paradigms. The

most assuredly China and greater Asia. The US has, to a large degree,

its day. The "War on Terror" is nothing other than a massive, albeit
obviously transparent, smokescreen for the real war: "THE WAR FOR

AND THE ECONOMIC SURVIVAL OF THE UNITED STATES AS A GLOBAL POWER".

The hegemony of the United States Dollar as a global reserve

which the world's commodities are traded, is fundamental to this

Given the massive indebtedness of the US at every conceivable level,

currency is under huge potential threat, with massive Asian influence

form of dollar surpluses held as US T bonds. If the dollar fails, so

will the United States, with all that this means. Right at the root

US's survival strategy is control of the world's oil reserves.

the dollar and the US are assuredly in serious decline. No price,

vast in terms of blood and treasure, is too high in this game of

gigantic stakes. Because of its failure to: adapt and reduce the

over-consumption of and dependence upon resources; develop its rail

alternative infrastructure to roads; and the lopsided structure of

and truck driven economy, the US has quite literally no other option.

to achieve its objectives, it has lost the moral high ground and

the real meaning of Democracy, with unforeseen consequences for the

and its own citizens.

The US and Israel have inspired terrorism by 55 years of their own

in the Middle East, rather than tackle the root causes of such

which they have no intention of doing as this will go against their
interests. Until Israel and its puppet states, the US and UK, are

book by the world community the causes of world terror will go

and continue into the distant future. However, they all know this,

little for the consequences for ordinary people, as they invoke

legislation and practices to tackle a problem entirely of their own
creation. Besides, its role as a suitable smokescreen to enact global

could not be more fortuitous, given their long term objectives of

the world's oil reserves and Israeli "control by proxy" of a

neutered and divided Middle East.

The Great (Oil) Game

Oil, and energy in general, are rapidly taking centre stage in world
politics and economics. Indeed, the US administration started

objectives in the 1930's under Herbert Hoover's Presidency. Hoover

advice in this regard as he was a well travelled consultant mining

Daniel Yergin's excellent short history of oil, written in 1990,

"The Prize" is recommended reading. Throughout the late 19th and 20th
Century's, Central Asia and latterly the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf

centre stage to what was colloquially known as "the Great Game",

Britain and the Czar's Russia in the period 1850 to 1900, then from

the present day between the US, UK, Russia and China, with India and
Pakistan now playing lesser but increasing roles.

Oil in commercial quantities was first pumped in the US State of
Pennsylvania where George Bissell's little consortium, spurred by

Silliman's discovery that rock oil could be fractionated into a wide

of potentially very useful derivatives, financed the drilling of a 60

rock drill hole, managed in the field by "Colonel" Edwin Drake. Rock

kerosene fraction replaced sperm whale oil as a source of clean and

illumination in lamps in homes throughout America. Demand around the

skyrocketed and oil mania was initiated. New oil fields were

oversupply became a major problem with wild gyrations in oil price

upon the supply - demand equation and massive speculative activity.
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company (SOHIO and SOCAL) rapidly, by both

organized, intelligent and sometimes unscrupulous business practices,
brought order and organisation to what had evolved as an unregulated,
shambolic, economic "free for all", with rampant waste and disorder

increasingly vital industry. However, the abundance of oil, and the
development of the motor car in the US, in particular Henry Ford's

car, put the burgeoning, largely new immigrant, US population on

made the US both the world's largest producer and consumer of oil and

products. As the rise in oil consumption grew exponentially, so did
exploration and development. New oil fields were discovered in

Texas and the Gulf states. However, early production in the US was
uncontrolled and primitive, worsened by the ill conceived and often

claim laws then in force. Over pumping was rife, as competition

wells in very close proximity resulted in a policy of "beggar thy

and accelerate your "cone of depletion" fastest to get the most oil

yourself. Even worse than this was the flaring off of natural gas

oil fields. Natural gas pressure is a vital feature in ensuring the
maximization of oil recovery in any given field. In Canada's Edmonton

a town lit by natural gas street lights that were never turned off,

recoveries were as low as 40% of total oil in the field. The

this day unexploited.

The wasteful policies and poor technology of a juvenile industry,

with the rapid development of the US economy as the world's largest

mid 1930's, meant that the US's best oil fields were not exploited in

optimum manner to maximize production. The majority of these fields

over-pumped and ruined. By the end of WW2, during which the US had to

the oil spigot to the maximum to support the war effort in the US and

oil fields were in steady decline having passed "Hubbert's Peak". The
realization came home to Harry S Truman and Winston Churchill that

oil "centre of gravity" was the Middle East. Control of Middle

became vital to the global strategies of both nations, in the cold

as it was pivotal to the survival of their economies, political

and the survival of the "free world".

Relationships with Arab nations in the post WW1 era were by and large

However, in 1948 the state of Israel was created, without any effort

establish a similar state for the Palestinian people, who were
disenfranchised by the policies of the UK and US. Since then, US
relationships with Arab states have been increasingly determined by

immensely, and increasingly powerful, Zionist lobby in the US, and

security mania of Israel, to the point at which Arab states today

US with extreme distrust, and as an Israeli puppet state by proxy,

a statement of truth, whether one likes it or not. The House of Saud

hopelessly corrupt and politically weak. The Saudi Royal Family is

a US puppet government sustained until the oil runs out. After that,

will be thrown to the wolves and the country will most likely

vast discrepancy between rich and poor, combined with a bell shaped
population profile, Wahibi Muslim extreme religious conservatism, and

unemployment mean that Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly

potentially politically volatile. Saudi Arabia has played the role of

producer" on the world's oil markets maintaining largely stable

nearly 45 years. Any sudden disturbance to this delicate balance

result in a panic situation in an increasingly nervous market place.

The distribution of the world's oil fields, both in terms of their

size and geography, is significant. Oil fields are categorized into,

top level: supergiant fields such as Saudi Arabia's Gawar and Majid e
Sulieman field's or Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo field. These are

reserves of more than 500 billion barrels of oil. All these fields

discovered before WW2, and have been under accelerating and high

production, ever since. Historically, there have been a mere 7 such

6 of which lie in the Middle East: two are in Saudi Arabia; one is

between Kuwait and Iraq; two are in Iraq at Kirkuk and Mosul; and one

Iran. With control of the Saudi oil fields through Saudi ARAMCO

now Saudi controlled, American influence is still major) and the

Saud (Royal Family of + 8,000 members), and now Kuwait, which is a

state of the UK and US, control of Iraq (US and UK) and forthcoming

change" in Iran, the US - UK - Israeli triumvirates objective becomes
patently obvious; namely control of 6 out of 7 of the world's

fields. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is a major CIA target for

change", the objective being to secure the world's last uncontrolled

field outside the Middle East. One could arguably add Alaska's North

field to the category of being the 8th supergiant field, this

being under US control.

As a teenager, I remember experts on BBC TV warning of the coming oil

in the late 1960's. However, these fears seemed misplaced as the

crisis never eventuated. However, it is now apparent that the dire

of some 40 years ago are finally upon us. The rapid and remarkable

China and SE Asia from peasant rural economies to industrial and

based economies, is at last exerting a massive demand pull on the

commodities, and shipping fleets. The USA, having failed to implement

form of energy and resource conservation, is a consumption junkie of

Kong" proportions. Far from heeding calls for conservation, the

hooked on the latest gas guzzling SUV's rather than fuel economic

However, the change, when it occurs, will be like a liquid helium

the US citizenry. The sad fact is that all the world's major oil

at their peaks of production, or are already over Hubbard's famous

each field. Examples documented in the technical literature, include

Arabia's giant 200 km long Gawar field and Venezuela's Maraciabo

the former, formation water brines are migrating into the reservoir

a clear signal that productive capacity is in serious decline.

This means that, in a world of burgeoning demand, with China and

demanding ever more to feed their growing economies, and the US and

not cutting back on consumption, the much vaunted supply crisis,

all those years ago, has at last arrived. Furthermore, no supergiant

have been discovered since Alaska in the 1970's. Moderate sized

being brought on stream at a rate far below depletion of world

great hope for future supplies lies in Central Asia and the Caucasus,

dare one say it, Antarctica. Tar sands and oil shales contain vast

reserves, notably in Venezuela's Orinoco river basin and Athabasca,

amounting to some 500 times the current global resources of oil, are

major option, however, to be developed and commercially extracted

a high sustained oil price of over US$ 100 to 120 per barrel. Such

would cripple the global economy.

Oil resource poor Europe plays the role of passive compliance, not

to do its own dirty work in the Middle East, and quite happy for the

UK to be its stooge, and stay out of the limelight and its negative

Instead, Europe is quietly and rapidly moving to oil and metal

Russia and the former CIS Republics such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Caspian and Northern Himalayas has

centre stage in the search for major new oil resources.

Lesser fields, but nonetheless significant, comprising cluster fields

100 to 500 billion barrel range are those in the offshore Niger

unstable and volatile Nigeria; the Congo, offshore Gabon, and

Angola. Libya's fields in the Sahara have largely lain moribund, in

modern development, under the control of the famous and politically

and capricious Colonel. However, moderation, and some no doubt hidden
agenda, has caused him to woo the international community, and to

foreign investment, into which France, Italy, Germany and the UK have

over each other in the scramble.

The Significant Other Factors

A further factor underpinning the US's internal and global policies,

been the increasing awareness of several very dangerous economic
developments for which it only has itself to blame. These largely

poor US economic planning over the last 50 years, and the greatest

of credit the world has ever seen. Unless the US becomes a

which is possible, this writer expects to see the US suddenly

of its greater Presidents: Mr. Andrew Jackson, who acted in the

interest and abolished the central bank, putting America firmly back

gold standard. When the denouement of the epic debt bubble of Mr.

Greenspan finally bursts, the US public will have a very rude

the Federal Reserve Bank will be abolished by a furious public once

all. The name Federal Reserve Bank could not be more misleading. It

Federal. It is not a Reserve Bank. It was established following a

John Pierpont Morgan, Vanderbilt and Nelson Aldrich on Jekyll Island

with the joint connivance of Woodrow Wilson's "advisor" (controller)

House. The bank has a Board of Governors appointed by its principal
shareholders, who are plutocratic merchant bankers, but now includes

Rothschild's, Citibank (Rockefeller is also head of the Council on

Relations - CFR - whose staff are present and dominate all US
administrations; e.g. Henry Kissinger), Bank of America and Salomon
Brothers, etc. This is a giant private bank, which not only issues

in the US, but underpins currency used for all international

trading all commodities; i.e., the US dollar. Notably, the Fed also

all US Tax receipts - corporate, government and private.

The boom and bust economic cycle is a function of how this

exercises its policies. Until 1982, the Fed exerted a modicum of

keeping money supply and credit issuance within some degree of

However, under the Carter and then Reagan administrations debt took

sprint to fund, amongst other things, Reagan's huge increase in the

budget. Paul Volcker, then Chairman of the Fed, put the brakes on by

interest rates in a clear signal to markets that enough was enough.

under the kindly and very accommodating Mr. Greenspan, the rate of

issuance has moved into overdrive, pumping up the stock market bubble

time, and the largest technical "head and shoulders" formation ever

an entire order of magnitude. This let the floodgates open to mergers

acquisitions mania near the bubble top in 1997 to 2000 when corporate

and malpractice were on an unprecedented scale. Valuations of stocks

all common sense financial reason. ENRON and WORLDCOM - MCI were but

of a huge iceberg of corporate crime which was rapidly covered up by

nervous markets hiding their immense basket of dirty linen. Heaven

the public should find out that corporate crime was systemic in the

echelons of US society. The most bizarre market was the NASDAQ where

for many stocks such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com were at mathematical
infinity, the perfect example of Greenspan's "irrational exuberance"

When the bubble burst in 2000 to 2001, the kindly Greenspan dropped

rates like a stone channelling the world's trillions into Real Estate

commodities markets and providing the basis to generate equity

baby bubble which we are now about to see come apart. This was great

the ever accommodative money lenders concocted new derivatives

hedge funds "with whistles, bells and dancing gals", mortgage schemes

would turn any old style banker white as a ghost. In the world of

finance, junk food, junk beverages, junk rap music, where junk status

are OK, we now had junk mortgages. Junk, Junk, Junk, Junk and more

the land where accountability and financial prudence no longer

Clearly, the Government of the US is so corrupt and venal that no one

a damn any more. Certainly protecting the rights and assets of one's
citizens is an idea that died with the Founding Fathers.

The entire post 2001 stock, bond market and real estate market boom

funded by an even greater expansion of FIAT credit that is mind

its audacity. This time Greenspan has really gone to town. Not

with his humungous equity bubble, he's gone one better to create the

market (the carry trade gravy train) and real estate bubble of all

People trading properties have hit the bonanza gold seam. Whilst real
incomes have remained largely static, amidst this vast asset

everyone who "owns" Mc Mansion ATM machine has the ability to

out of space to keep on spending and piling up more debt. All this is

course funded by the Fed's vast issuance of T Bonds, largely to Japan

China. This happy little virtuous circle, where we buy your goods and

buy our junk paper and take profits on the carry trade is just fine

dandy so long as the spreads offset the massive currency losses in US
denominated paper. However, whereas the spreads between the short and

duration bonds was 250 basis points, it has now narrowed to 50 to 70

points. If the happy little symbiotic relationship in the markets

unwinds, as seems likely, and the Mc Mansion funded US consumer runs

Mc Mansion funds to keep the tills ringing, what then?

Just what is going to underpin the United States Dollar when all else

a rapid rise in rates is not really palatable given the horrendous
consequences of rates at say 6% to 7 %, or more, needed to support

dollar, so what else is there.......OIL?????. Or, is the US just

broke and declare all debts owed by it as defunct? Except of course

banks will want your properties or other assets back if you can't

loans.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8411.htm

"The Epic Struggle for World Hegemony"

By Nigel H Maund

03/30/05 -

Overview

The war for commodities is central to the scramble for political

and economic survival of the US as the sole world hyperpower and

of the world to come according to its own model, rather than face a

where this cultural, economic and political hegemony is not only

but eclipsed by the growing industrial and geopolitical might of

As a consumer of 25% of the world's annual oil output, and the

largest importer of oil, the US is absolutely central to oil

Furthermore, given the geography and structure of the US

logistics system, no country's economy is more vulnerable than the US

serious dislocation in supplies or sustained rise in price. Hydrogen

electric powered vehicles and atomic fusion are years from becoming a
commercial and technologically viable alterative to oil, despite the
increasing sums spent on R & D.

Oil is only a part, albeit a big part, of the scramble for resources.

strategic minerals are also central to this great economic power game

as: platinum, nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, vanadium, chromium,
manganese, iron, molybdenum, tungsten and even such rust belt metals

and zinc. Several vital elements the US has to import. These are:

nickel, vanadium, uranium, chromium and iron and manganese. Three are

for steel making: iron, nickel and manganese. Vanadium can be added

also ran to this mix.

China, with a population equal to 4 times that of the US, at 1.2

has a potential demand that will put immense upward pressure on the

and demand for all commodities, to feed its unstoppable growth.

a population of 1 billion people, is slowly joining this race for
development. SE Asian nations are already well advanced along this

Singapore (4 million); Taiwan (22 million) and Korea (47 million)

the way, followed by Thailand (61 million); Malaysia (20 million) and
Vietnam (78 million) with the Philippines (85 million) and Indonesia

million) as the economic laggards. However, all these nations come

China's growing economic gravitational pull and influence, and all

significant Chinese expatriate populations, which dominate their

economies. Japan is beginning to rethink where it future lies. The

world has significantly changed, and, with it old paradigms. The

most assuredly China and greater Asia. The US has, to a large degree,

its day. The "War on Terror" is nothing other than a massive, albeit
obviously transparent, smokescreen for the real war: "THE WAR FOR

AND THE ECONOMIC SURVIVAL OF THE UNITED STATES AS A GLOBAL POWER".

The hegemony of the United States Dollar as a global reserve

which the world's commodities are traded, is fundamental to this

Given the massive indebtedness of the US at every conceivable level,

currency is under huge potential threat, with massive Asian influence

form of dollar surpluses held as US T bonds. If the dollar fails, so

will the United States, with all that this means. Right at the root

US's survival strategy is control of the world's oil reserves.

the dollar and the US are assuredly in serious decline. No price,

vast in terms of blood and treasure, is too high in this game of

gigantic stakes. Because of its failure to: adapt and reduce the

over-consumption of and dependence upon resources; develop its rail

alternative infrastructure to roads; and the lopsided structure of

and truck driven economy, the US has quite literally no other option.

to achieve its objectives, it has lost the moral high ground and

the real meaning of Democracy, with unforeseen consequences for the

and its own citizens.

The US and Israel have inspired terrorism by 55 years of their own

in the Middle East, rather than tackle the root causes of such

which they have no intention of doing as this will go against their
interests. Until Israel and its puppet states, the US and UK, are

book by the world community the causes of world terror will go

and continue into the distant future. However, they all know this,

little for the consequences for ordinary people, as they invoke

legislation and practices to tackle a problem entirely of their own
creation. Besides, its role as a suitable smokescreen to enact global

could not be more fortuitous, given their long term objectives of

the world's oil reserves and Israeli "control by proxy" of a

neutered and divided Middle East.

The Great (Oil) Game

Oil, and energy in general, are rapidly taking centre stage in world
politics and economics. Indeed, the US administration started

objectives in the 1930's under Herbert Hoover's Presidency. Hoover

advice in this regard as he was a well travelled consultant mining

Daniel Yergin's excellent short history of oil, written in 1990,

"The Prize" is recommended reading. Throughout the late 19th and 20th
Century's, Central Asia and latterly the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf

centre stage to what was colloquially known as "the Great Game",

Britain and the Czar's Russia in the period 1850 to 1900, then from

the present day between the US, UK, Russia and China, with India and
Pakistan now playing lesser but increasing roles.

Oil in commercial quantities was first pumped in the US State of
Pennsylvania where George Bissell's little consortium, spurred by

Silliman's discovery that rock oil could be fractionated into a wide

of potentially very useful derivatives, financed the drilling of a 60

rock drill hole, managed in the field by "Colonel" Edwin Drake. Rock

kerosene fraction replaced sperm whale oil as a source of clean and

illumination in lamps in homes throughout America. Demand around the

skyrocketed and oil mania was initiated. New oil fields were

oversupply became a major problem with wild gyrations in oil price

upon the supply - demand equation and massive speculative activity.
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company (SOHIO and SOCAL) rapidly, by both

organized, intelligent and sometimes unscrupulous business practices,
brought order and organisation to what had evolved as an unregulated,
shambolic, economic "free for all", with rampant waste and disorder

increasingly vital industry. However, the abundance of oil, and the
development of the motor car in the US, in particular Henry Ford's

car, put the burgeoning, largely new immigrant, US population on

made the US both the world's largest producer and consumer of oil and

products. As the rise in oil consumption grew exponentially, so did
exploration and development. New oil fields were discovered in

Texas and the Gulf states. However, early production in the US was
uncontrolled and primitive, worsened by the ill conceived and often

claim laws then in force. Over pumping was rife, as competition

wells in very close proximity resulted in a policy of "beggar thy

and accelerate your "cone of depletion" fastest to get the most oil

yourself. Even worse than this was the flaring off of natural gas

oil fields. Natural gas pressure is a vital feature in ensuring the
maximization of oil recovery in any given field. In Canada's Edmonton

a town lit by natural gas street lights that were never turned off,

recoveries were as low as 40% of total oil in the field. The

this day unexploited.

The wasteful policies and poor technology of a juvenile industry,

with the rapid development of the US economy as the world's largest

mid 1930's, meant that the US's best oil fields were not exploited in

optimum manner to maximize production. The majority of these fields

over-pumped and ruined. By the end of WW2, during which the US had to

the oil spigot to the maximum to support the war effort in the US and

oil fields were in steady decline having passed "Hubbert's Peak". The
realization came home to Harry S Truman and Winston Churchill that

oil "centre of gravity" was the Middle East. Control of Middle

became vital to the global strategies of both nations, in the cold

as it was pivotal to the survival of their economies, political

and the survival of the "free world".

Relationships with Arab nations in the post WW1 era were by and large

However, in 1948 the state of Israel was created, without any effort

establish a similar state for the Palestinian people, who were
disenfranchised by the policies of the UK and US. Since then, US
relationships with Arab states have been increasingly determined by

immensely, and increasingly powerful, Zionist lobby in the US, and

security mania of Israel, to the point at which Arab states today

US with extreme distrust, and as an Israeli puppet state by proxy,

a statement of truth, whether one likes it or not. The House of Saud

hopelessly corrupt and politically weak. The Saudi Royal Family is

a US puppet government sustained until the oil runs out. After that,

will be thrown to the wolves and the country will most likely

vast discrepancy between rich and poor, combined with a bell shaped
population profile, Wahibi Muslim extreme religious conservatism, and

unemployment mean that Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly

potentially politically volatile. Saudi Arabia has played the role of

producer" on the world's oil markets maintaining largely stable

nearly 45 years. Any sudden disturbance to this delicate balance

result in a panic situation in an increasingly nervous market place.

The distribution of the world's oil fields, both in terms of their

size and geography, is significant. Oil fields are categorized into,

top level: supergiant fields such as Saudi Arabia's Gawar and Majid e
Sulieman field's or Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo field. These are

reserves of more than 500 billion barrels of oil. All these fields

discovered before WW2, and have been under accelerating and high

production, ever since. Historically, there have been a mere 7 such

6 of which lie in the Middle East: two are in Saudi Arabia; one is

between Kuwait and Iraq; two are in Iraq at Kirkuk and Mosul; and one

Iran. With control of the Saudi oil fields through Saudi ARAMCO

now Saudi controlled, American influence is still major) and the

Saud (Royal Family of + 8,000 members), and now Kuwait, which is a

state of the UK and US, control of Iraq (US and UK) and forthcoming

change" in Iran, the US - UK - Israeli triumvirates objective becomes
patently obvious; namely control of 6 out of 7 of the world's

fields. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is a major CIA target for

change", the objective being to secure the world's last uncontrolled

field outside the Middle East. One could arguably add Alaska's North

field to the category of being the 8th supergiant field, this

being under US control.

As a teenager, I remember experts on BBC TV warning of the coming oil

in the late 1960's. However, these fears seemed misplaced as the

crisis never eventuated. However, it is now apparent that the dire

of some 40 years ago are finally upon us. The rapid and remarkable

China and SE Asia from peasant rural economies to industrial and

based economies, is at last exerting a massive demand pull on the

commodities, and shipping fleets. The USA, having failed to implement

form of energy and resource conservation, is a consumption junkie of

Kong" proportions. Far from heeding calls for conservation, the

hooked on the latest gas guzzling SUV's rather than fuel economic

However, the change, when it occurs, will be like a liquid helium

the US citizenry. The sad fact is that all the world's major oil

at their peaks of production, or are already over Hubbard's famous

each field. Examples documented in the technical literature, include

Arabia's giant 200 km long Gawar field and Venezuela's Maraciabo

the former, formation water brines are migrating into the reservoir

a clear signal that productive capacity is in serious decline.

This means that, in a world of burgeoning demand, with China and

demanding ever more to feed their growing economies, and the US and

not cutting back on consumption, the much vaunted supply crisis,

all those years ago, has at last arrived. Furthermore, no supergiant

have been discovered since Alaska in the 1970's. Moderate sized

being brought on stream at a rate far below depletion of world

great hope for future supplies lies in Central Asia and the Caucasus,

dare one say it, Antarctica. Tar sands and oil shales contain vast

reserves, notably in Venezuela's Orinoco river basin and Athabasca,

amounting to some 500 times the current global resources of oil, are

major option, however, to be developed and commercially extracted

a high sustained oil price of over US$ 100 to 120 per barrel. Such

would cripple the global economy.

Oil resource poor Europe plays the role of passive compliance, not

to do its own dirty work in the Middle East, and quite happy for the

UK to be its stooge, and stay out of the limelight and its negative

Instead, Europe is quietly and rapidly moving to oil and metal

Russia and the former CIS Republics such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Caspian and Northern Himalayas has

centre stage in the search for major new oil resources.

Lesser fields, but nonetheless significant, comprising cluster fields

100 to 500 billion barrel range are those in the offshore Niger

unstable and volatile Nigeria; the Congo, offshore Gabon, and

Angola. Libya's fields in the Sahara have largely lain moribund, in

modern development, under the control of the famous and politically

and capricious Colonel. However, moderation, and some no doubt hidden
agenda, has caused him to woo the international community, and to

foreign investment, into which France, Italy, Germany and the UK have

over each other in the scramble.

The Significant Other Factors

A further factor underpinning the US's internal and global policies,

been the increasing awareness of several very dangerous economic
developments for which it only has itself to blame. These largely

poor US economic planning over the last 50 years, and the greatest

of credit the world has ever seen. Unless the US becomes a

which is possible, this writer expects to see the US suddenly

of its greater Presidents: Mr. Andrew Jackson, who acted in the

interest and abolished the central bank, putting America firmly back

gold standard. When the denouement of the epic debt bubble of Mr.

Greenspan finally bursts, the US public will have a very rude

the Federal Reserve Bank will be abolished by a furious public once

all. The name Federal Reserve Bank could not be more misleading. It

Federal. It is not a Reserve Bank. It was established following a

John Pierpont Morgan, Vanderbilt and Nelson Aldrich on Jekyll Island

with the joint connivance of Woodrow Wilson's "advisor" (controller)

House. The bank has a Board of Governors appointed by its principal
shareholders, who are plutocratic merchant bankers, but now includes

Rothschild's, Citibank (Rockefeller is also head of the Council on

Relations - CFR - whose staff are present and dominate all US
administrations; e.g. Henry Kissinger), Bank of America and Salomon
Brothers, etc. This is a giant private bank, which not only issues

in the US, but underpins currency used for all international

trading all commodities; i.e., the US dollar. Notably, the Fed also

all US Tax receipts - corporate, government and private.

The boom and bust economic cycle is a function of how this

exercises its policies. Until 1982, the Fed exerted a modicum of

keeping money supply and credit issuance within some degree of

However, under the Carter and then Reagan administrations debt took

sprint to fund, amongst other things, Reagan's huge increase in the

budget. Paul Volcker, then Chairman of the Fed, put the brakes on by

interest rates in a clear signal to markets that enough was enough.

under the kindly and very accommodating Mr. Greenspan, the rate of

issuance has moved into overdrive, pumping up the stock market bubble

time, and the largest technical "head and shoulders" formation ever

an entire order of magnitude. This let the floodgates open to mergers

acquisitions mania near the bubble top in 1997 to 2000 when corporate

and malpractice were on an unprecedented scale. Valuations of stocks

all common sense financial reason. ENRON and WORLDCOM - MCI were but

of a huge iceberg of corporate crime which was rapidly covered up by

nervous markets hiding their immense basket of dirty linen. Heaven

the public should find out that corporate crime was systemic in the

echelons of US society. The most bizarre market was the NASDAQ where

for many stocks such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com were at mathematical
infinity, the perfect example of Greenspan's "irrational exuberance"

When the bubble burst in 2000 to 2001, the kindly Greenspan dropped

rates like a stone channelling the world's trillions into Real Estate

commodities markets and providing the basis to generate equity

baby bubble which we are now about to see come apart. This was great

the ever accommodative money lenders concocted new derivatives

hedge funds "with whistles, bells and dancing gals", mortgage schemes

would turn any old style banker white as a ghost. In the world of

finance, junk food, junk beverages, junk rap music, where junk status

are OK, we now had junk mortgages. Junk, Junk, Junk, Junk and more

the land where accountability and financial prudence no longer

Clearly, the Government of the US is so corrupt and venal that no one

a damn any more. Certainly protecting the rights and assets of one's
citizens is an idea that died with the Founding Fathers.

The entire post 2001 stock, bond market and real estate market boom

funded by an even greater expansion of FIAT credit that is mind

its audacity. This time Greenspan has really gone to town. Not

with his humungous equity bubble, he's gone one better to create the

market (the carry trade gravy train) and real estate bubble of all

People trading properties have hit the bonanza gold seam. Whilst real
incomes have remained largely static, amidst this vast asset

everyone who "owns" Mc Mansion ATM machine has the ability to

out of space to keep on spending and piling up more debt. All this is

course funded by the Fed's vast issuance of T Bonds, largely to Japan

China. This happy little virtuous circle, where we buy your goods and

buy our junk paper and take profits on the carry trade is just fine

dandy so long as the spreads offset the massive currency losses in US
denominated paper. However, whereas the spreads between the short and

duration bonds was 250 basis points, it has now narrowed to 50 to 70

points. If the happy little symbiotic relationship in the markets

unwinds, as seems likely, and the Mc Mansion funded US consumer runs

Mc Mansion funds to keep the tills ringing, what then?

Just what is going to underpin the United States Dollar when all else

a rapid rise in rates is not really palatable given the horrendous
consequences of rates at say 6% to 7 %, or more, needed to support

dollar, so what else is there.......OIL?????. Or, is the US just

broke and declare all debts owed by it as defunct? Except of course

banks will want your properties or other assets back if you can't

loans.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8411.htm

"The Epic Struggle for World Hegemony"

By Nigel H Maund

03/30/05 -

Overview

The war for commodities is central to the scramble for political

and economic survival of the US as the sole world hyperpower and

of the world to come according to its own model, rather than face a

where this cultural, economic and political hegemony is not only

but eclipsed by the growing industrial and geopolitical might of

As a consumer of 25% of the world's annual oil output, and the

largest importer of oil, the US is absolutely central to oil

Furthermore, given the geography and structure of the US

logistics system, no country's economy is more vulnerable than the US

serious dislocation in supplies or sustained rise in price. Hydrogen

electric powered vehicles and atomic fusion are years from becoming a
commercial and technologically viable alterative to oil, despite the
increasing sums spent on R & D.

Oil is only a part, albeit a big part, of the scramble for resources.

strategic minerals are also central to this great economic power game

as: platinum, nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, vanadium, chromium,
manganese, iron, molybdenum, tungsten and even such rust belt metals

and zinc. Several vital elements the US has to import. These are:

nickel, vanadium, uranium, chromium and iron and manganese. Three are

for steel making: iron, nickel and manganese. Vanadium can be added

also ran to this mix.

China, with a population equal to 4 times that of the US, at 1.2

has a potential demand that will put immense upward pressure on the

and demand for all commodities, to feed its unstoppable growth.

a population of 1 billion people, is slowly joining this race for
development. SE Asian nations are already well advanced along this

Singapore (4 million); Taiwan (22 million) and Korea (47 million)

the way, followed by Thailand (61 million); Malaysia (20 million) and
Vietnam (78 million) with the Philippines (85 million) and Indonesia

million) as the economic laggards. However, all these nations come

China's growing economic gravitational pull and influence, and all

significant Chinese expatriate populations, which dominate their

economies. Japan is beginning to rethink where it future lies. The

world has significantly changed, and, with it old paradigms. The

most assuredly China and greater Asia. The US has, to a large degree,

its day. The "War on Terror" is nothing other than a massive, albeit
obviously transparent, smokescreen for the real war: "THE WAR FOR

AND THE ECONOMIC SURVIVAL OF THE UNITED STATES AS A GLOBAL POWER".

The hegemony of the United States Dollar as a global reserve

which the world's commodities are traded, is fundamental to this

Given the massive indebtedness of the US at every conceivable level,

currency is under huge potential threat, with massive Asian influence

form of dollar surpluses held as US T bonds. If the dollar fails, so

will the United States, with all that this means. Right at the root

US's survival strategy is control of the world's oil reserves.

the dollar and the US are assuredly in serious decline. No price,

vast in terms of blood and treasure, is too high in this game of

gigantic stakes. Because of its failure to: adapt and reduce the

over-consumption of and dependence upon resources; develop its rail

alternative infrastructure to roads; and the lopsided structure of

and truck driven economy, the US has quite literally no other option.

to achieve its objectives, it has lost the moral high ground and

the real meaning of Democracy, with unforeseen consequences for the

and its own citizens.

The US and Israel have inspired terrorism by 55 years of their own

in the Middle East, rather than tackle the root causes of such

which they have no intention of doing as this will go against their
interests. Until Israel and its puppet states, the US and UK, are

book by the world community the causes of world terror will go

and continue into the distant future. However, they all know this,

little for the consequences for ordinary people, as they invoke

legislation and practices to tackle a problem entirely of their own
creation. Besides, its role as a suitable smokescreen to enact global

could not be more fortuitous, given their long term objectives of

the world's oil reserves and Israeli "control by proxy" of a

neutered and divided Middle East.

The Great (Oil) Game

Oil, and energy in general, are rapidly taking centre stage in world
politics and economics. Indeed, the US administration started

objectives in the 1930's under Herbert Hoover's Presidency. Hoover

advice in this regard as he was a well travelled consultant mining

Daniel Yergin's excellent short history of oil, written in 1990,

"The Prize" is recommended reading. Throughout the late 19th and 20th
Century's, Central Asia and latterly the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf

centre stage to what was colloquially known as "the Great Game",

Britain and the Czar's Russia in the period 1850 to 1900, then from

the present day between the US, UK, Russia and China, with India and
Pakistan now playing lesser but increasing roles.

Oil in commercial quantities was first pumped in the US State of
Pennsylvania where George Bissell's little consortium, spurred by

Silliman's discovery that rock oil could be fractionated into a wide

of potentially very useful derivatives, financed the drilling of a 60

rock drill hole, managed in the field by "Colonel" Edwin Drake. Rock

kerosene fraction replaced sperm whale oil as a source of clean and

illumination in lamps in homes throughout America. Demand around the

skyrocketed and oil mania was initiated. New oil fields were

oversupply became a major problem with wild gyrations in oil price

upon the supply - demand equation and massive speculative activity.
Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company (SOHIO and SOCAL) rapidly, by both

organized, intelligent and sometimes unscrupulous business practices,
brought order and organisation to what had evolved as an unregulated,
shambolic, economic "free for all", with rampant waste and disorder

increasingly vital industry. However, the abundance of oil, and the
development of the motor car in the US, in particular Henry Ford's

car, put the burgeoning, largely new immigrant, US population on

made the US both the world's largest producer and consumer of oil and

products. As the rise in oil consumption grew exponentially, so did
exploration and development. New oil fields were discovered in

Texas and the Gulf states. However, early production in the US was
uncontrolled and primitive, worsened by the ill conceived and often

claim laws then in force. Over pumping was rife, as competition

wells in very close proximity resulted in a policy of "beggar thy

and accelerate your "cone of depletion" fastest to get the most oil

yourself. Even worse than this was the flaring off of natural gas

oil fields. Natural gas pressure is a vital feature in ensuring the
maximization of oil recovery in any given field. In Canada's Edmonton

a town lit by natural gas street lights that were never turned off,

recoveries were as low as 40% of total oil in the field. The

this day unexploited.

The wasteful policies and poor technology of a juvenile industry,

with the rapid development of the US economy as the world's largest

mid 1930's, meant that the US's best oil fields were not exploited in

optimum manner to maximize production. The majority of these fields

over-pumped and ruined. By the end of WW2, during which the US had to

the oil spigot to the maximum to support the war effort in the US and

oil fields were in steady decline having passed "Hubbert's Peak". The
realization came home to Harry S Truman and Winston Churchill that

oil "centre of gravity" was the Middle East. Control of Middle

became vital to the global strategies of both nations, in the cold

as it was pivotal to the survival of their economies, political

and the survival of the "free world".

Relationships with Arab nations in the post WW1 era were by and large

However, in 1948 the state of Israel was created, without any effort

establish a similar state for the Palestinian people, who were
disenfranchised by the policies of the UK and US. Since then, US
relationships with Arab states have been increasingly determined by

immensely, and increasingly powerful, Zionist lobby in the US, and

security mania of Israel, to the point at which Arab states today

US with extreme distrust, and as an Israeli puppet state by proxy,

a statement of truth, whether one likes it or not. The House of Saud

hopelessly corrupt and politically weak. The Saudi Royal Family is

a US puppet government sustained until the oil runs out. After that,

will be thrown to the wolves and the country will most likely

vast discrepancy between rich and poor, combined with a bell shaped
population profile, Wahibi Muslim extreme religious conservatism, and

unemployment mean that Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly

potentially politically volatile. Saudi Arabia has played the role of

producer" on the world's oil markets maintaining largely stable

nearly 45 years. Any sudden disturbance to this delicate balance

result in a panic situation in an increasingly nervous market place.

The distribution of the world's oil fields, both in terms of their

size and geography, is significant. Oil fields are categorized into,

top level: supergiant fields such as Saudi Arabia's Gawar and Majid e
Sulieman field's or Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo field. These are

reserves of more than 500 billion barrels of oil. All these fields

discovered before WW2, and have been under accelerating and high

production, ever since. Historically, there have been a mere 7 such

6 of which lie in the Middle East: two are in Saudi Arabia; one is

between Kuwait and Iraq; two are in Iraq at Kirkuk and Mosul; and one

Iran. With control of the Saudi oil fields through Saudi ARAMCO

now Saudi controlled, American influence is still major) and the

Saud (Royal Family of + 8,000 members), and now Kuwait, which is a

state of the UK and US, control of Iraq (US and UK) and forthcoming

change" in Iran, the US - UK - Israeli triumvirates objective becomes
patently obvious; namely control of 6 out of 7 of the world's

fields. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is a major CIA target for

change", the objective being to secure the world's last uncontrolled

field outside the Middle East. One could arguably add Alaska's North

field to the category of being the 8th supergiant field, this

being under US control.

As a teenager, I remember experts on BBC TV warning of the coming oil

in the late 1960's. However, these fears seemed misplaced as the

crisis never eventuated. However, it is now apparent that the dire

of some 40 years ago are finally upon us. The rapid and remarkable

China and SE Asia from peasant rural economies to industrial and

based economies, is at last exerting a massive demand pull on the

commodities, and shipping fleets. The USA, having failed to implement

form of energy and resource conservation, is a consumption junkie of

Kong" proportions. Far from heeding calls for conservation, the

hooked on the latest gas guzzling SUV's rather than fuel economic

However, the change, when it occurs, will be like a liquid helium

the US citizenry. The sad fact is that all the world's major oil

at their peaks of production, or are already over Hubbard's famous

each field. Examples documented in the technical literature, include

Arabia's giant 200 km long Gawar field and Venezuela's Maraciabo

the former, formation water brines are migrating into the reservoir

a clear signal that productive capacity is in serious decline.

This means that, in a world of burgeoning demand, with China and

demanding ever more to feed their growing economies, and the US and

not cutting back on consumption, the much vaunted supply crisis,

all those years ago, has at last arrived. Furthermore, no supergiant

have been discovered since Alaska in the 1970's. Moderate sized

being brought on stream at a rate far below depletion of world

great hope for future supplies lies in Central Asia and the Caucasus,

dare one say it, Antarctica. Tar sands and oil shales contain vast

reserves, notably in Venezuela's Orinoco river basin and Athabasca,

amounting to some 500 times the current global resources of oil, are

major option, however, to be developed and commercially extracted

a high sustained oil price of over US$ 100 to 120 per barrel. Such

would cripple the global economy.

Oil resource poor Europe plays the role of passive compliance, not

to do its own dirty work in the Middle East, and quite happy for the

UK to be its stooge, and stay out of the limelight and its negative

Instead, Europe is quietly and rapidly moving to oil and metal

Russia and the former CIS Republics such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Caspian and Northern Himalayas has

centre stage in the search for major new oil resources.

Lesser fields, but nonetheless significant, comprising cluster fields

100 to 500 billion barrel range are those in the offshore Niger

unstable and volatile Nigeria; the Congo, offshore Gabon, and

Angola. Libya's fields in the Sahara have largely lain moribund, in

modern development, under the control of the famous and politically

and capricious Colonel. However, moderation, and some no doubt hidden
agenda, has caused him to woo the international community, and to

foreign investment, into which France, Italy, Germany and the UK have

over each other in the scramble.

The Significant Other Factors

A further factor underpinning the US's internal and global policies,

been the increasing awareness of several very dangerous economic
developments for which it only has itself to blame. These largely

poor US economic planning over the last 50 years, and the greatest

of credit the world has ever seen. Unless the US becomes a

which is possible, this writer expects to see the US suddenly

of its greater Presidents: Mr. Andrew Jackson, who acted in the

interest and abolished the central bank, putting America firmly back

gold standard. When the denouement of the epic debt bubble of Mr.

Greenspan finally bursts, the US public will have a very rude

the Federal Reserve Bank will be abolished by a furious public once

all. The name Federal Reserve Bank could not be more misleading. It

Federal. It is not a Reserve Bank. It was established following a

John Pierpont Morgan, Vanderbilt and Nelson Aldrich on Jekyll Island

with the joint connivance of Woodrow Wilson's "advisor" (controller)

House. The bank has a Board of Governors appointed by its principal
shareholders, who are plutocratic merchant bankers, but now includes

Rothschild's, Citibank (Rockefeller is also head of the Council on

Relations - CFR - whose staff are present and dominate all US
administrations; e.g. Henry Kissinger), Bank of America and Salomon
Brothers, etc. This is a giant private bank, which not only issues

in the US, but underpins currency used for all international

trading all commodities; i.e., the US dollar. Notably, the Fed also

all US Tax receipts - corporate, government and private.

The boom and bust economic cycle is a function of how this

exercises its policies. Until 1982, the Fed exerted a modicum of

keeping money supply and credit issuance within some degree of

However, under the Carter and then Reagan administrations debt took

sprint to fund, amongst other things, Reagan's huge increase in the

budget. Paul Volcker, then Chairman of the Fed, put the brakes on by

interest rates in a clear signal to markets that enough was enough.

under the kindly and very accommodating Mr. Greenspan, the rate of

issuance has moved into overdrive, pumping up the stock market bubble

time, and the largest technical "head and shoulders" formation ever

an entire order of magnitude. This let the floodgates open to mergers

acquisitions mania near the bubble top in 1997 to 2000 when corporate

and malpractice were on an unprecedented scale. Valuations of stocks

all common sense financial reason. ENRON and WORLDCOM - MCI were but

of a huge iceberg of corporate crime which was rapidly covered up by

nervous markets hiding their immense basket of dirty linen. Heaven

the public should find out that corporate crime was systemic in the

echelons of US society. The most bizarre market was the NASDAQ where

for many stocks such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com were at mathematical
infinity, the perfect example of Greenspan's "irrational exuberance"

When the bubble burst in 2000 to 2001, the kindly Greenspan dropped

rates like a stone channelling the world's trillions into Real Estate

commodities markets and providing the basis to generate equity

baby bubble which we are now about to see come apart. This was great

the ever accommodative money lenders concocted new derivatives

hedge funds "with whistles, bells and dancing gals", mortgage schemes

would turn any old style banker white as a ghost. In the world of

finance, junk food, junk beverages, junk rap music, where junk status

are OK, we now had junk mortgages. Junk, Junk, Junk, Junk and more

the land where accountability and financial prudence no longer

Clearly, the Government of the US is so corrupt and venal that no one

a damn any more. Certainly protecting the rights and assets of one's
citizens is an idea that died with the Founding Fathers.

The entire post 2001 stock, bond market and real estate market boom

funded by an even greater expansion of FIAT credit that is mind

its audacity. This time Greenspan has really gone to town. Not

with his humungous equity bubble, he's gone one better to create the

market (the carry trade gravy train) and real estate bubble of all

People trading properties have hit the bonanza gold seam. Whilst real
incomes have remained largely static, amidst this vast asset

everyone who "owns" Mc Mansion ATM machine has the ability to

out of space to keep on spending and piling up more debt. All this is

course funded by the Fed's vast issuance of T Bonds, largely to Japan

China. This happy little virtuous circle, where we buy your goods and

buy our junk paper and take profits on the carry trade is just fine

dandy so long as the spreads offset the massive currency losses in US
denominated paper. However, whereas the spreads between the short and

duration bonds was 250 basis points, it has now narrowed to 50 to 70

points. If the happy little symbiotic relationship in the markets

unwinds, as seems likely, and the Mc Mansion funded US consumer runs

Mc Mansion funds to keep the tills ringing, what then?

Just what is going to underpin the United States Dollar when all else

a rapid rise in rates is not really palatable given the horrendous
consequences of rates at say 6% to 7 %, or more, needed to support

dollar, so what else is there.......OIL?????. Or, is the US just

broke and declare all debts owed by it as defunct? Except of course

banks will want your properties or other assets back if you can't

loans.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8411.htm