9 Comments

We Americans are on the precipice of receiving justice, ugly justice. We deserve it, for allowing the demented, feckless, moronic, venal cabal that runs "our government" to obtain and maintain their corrupt power for several decades. I guess I should not have driven the 45 miles each way to observe the total eclipse this afternoon.

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And I imagine most Americans are like most Brits: totally oblivious to what is going on.

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Doesn’t most of the oil traveling through Hormuz go to Asian buyers? Wouldn’t shutting it down disproportionally hurt China?

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This link breaks it down: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61002

Asian destinations are the biggest: China, India, Japan, South Korea. It doesn't indicate the percentage of total oil/gas use for their economies comes from the PG. The other side of the story is that those are some huge economies, and if all of those Asian economies sneeze at the same time, the rest of the world will definitely get a cold--or worse. China and India can increase shipments from Russia--China-Russia pipelines are being built now--and that would hurt Europe, because India has been reselling huge amounts of Russian oil to Europe. Japan is getting more energy from a joint project with Russia (Sakhalin), but Japan may actually be the most dependent--not sure.

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As with Ukraine, Europe is the big loser in all this. Darn it, I'm European!

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As Mark wrote today, the Brits are evermore trying to take down their opponents: (the US,) Germany, and Russia.

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Thx, I imagine that there could be safe passage granted to the right ships... and Iran has probably discussed contingencies with Russia and China. If that oil slows down, the price will skyrocket which, similarly to the refinery attacks in Russia, may paradoxically result in higher profits even at lower volume.

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You are right about Japan-Russia deal in Sakhalin. I was about to go work there in 2016-17.

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I'd love to visit that part of the world, but I suspect it is mostly off-limits to foreigners.

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