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comment by mk
mk  ·  3512 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Saudi Arabia's Plan to Extend the Age of Oil

It's fascinating to think that such a large aspect of the global economy can be at the direction of one man. I am currently reading Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed, in which Ahamed argues that the stock market bubble prior to the Great Depression was largely promoted by the efforts of Benjamin Strong, who maintained low US interest rates (~4%!) so as to push US gold reserves into Great Britain in an effort to save the gold standard.

I can't help but think that our current global economic situation is in a state of flux.





veen  ·  3512 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It's fascinating to think that such a large aspect of the global economy can be at the direction of one man.

I think it's primarily depressing. The only silver lining is the realization that renewables are an inevitability. Naomi Klein makes a very strong argument in her book that those who stand to gain from delaying that inevitability are exactly those who are so often in power: the rich.