The current issue (July-August 2008) of Foreign Affairs has an intriguing article by David G. Victor and Sarah Eskreis-Winkler,'In the Tank', about the USA's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which now contains over 700 million barrels of oil stored underground in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
A succinct summary:Oil stocks can help buffer economic shocks, but only if Washington radically reforms its handling of them.
As the summary implies, Washington has not been doing a good job of managing the SPR. What struck me was the following passage:
Under the presidencies of Clinton and George W. Bush, the United States managed the SPR exactly backward -- selling when prices were low and buying when they were high -- squandering perhaps as much as $1 billion over two decades.
Sell low and buy high. I'd expect that from Clinton, but I would have imagined that Dubya, the "MBA President", from Harvard, no less, would have known better. But wait - it's not 'Dubya', but 'Duhhhhhbya'.
Good article.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." -- Mark Twain
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