Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold - Hardcover

El-Gamal, Mahmoud A.; Jaffe, Amy Myers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521896142 ISBN 13: 9780521896146

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises studies the causes of the current oil and global financial crisis and shows how America's and the world's growing dependence on oil has created a repeating pattern of banking, currency, and energy-price crises. Unlike other books on the current financial crisis, which have focused on US indebtedness and American trade and economic policy, Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises shows the reader a more complex picture in which transfers of wealth to and from the Middle East result in a perfect storm of global asset and financial market bubbles, increased unrest, terrorism and geopolitical conflicts, and eventually rising costs for energy. Only by addressing long-term energy policy challenges in the West, economic development challenges in the Middle East, and the investment horizons of financial market players can policymakers ameliorate the forces that have been causing repeating global economic crises.

About this title

Review

'Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises is impressively prescient in highlighting the risks associated with major imbalances in the global financial system. The book moves well beyond economic analysis to assess other factors that shape production decisions by major energy exporters. Above all, the authors continually - and rightly - stress the global nature of the challenges confronting us. The authors give Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises a richness of analytic texture rare in books of its kind.' James A. Baker III, Former US Secretary of State, from the Foreword

'A boldly original and provocative display of the mutual amplifications since the 1970s of a global energy price cycle, a global finance cycle, and geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East into a super cycle that is 'endogenous and self-perpetuating'.' Clement M. Henry, University of Texas, Austin

'In today's geo-strategic environment, few threats are more perilous than the potential cutoff of energy supplies. Unfortunately, recent experience provides us little reason to be confident that market rationality will always win the day where petro-politics is concerned. El-Gamal and Jaffe offer a timely analysis of the potentially perilous interaction of oil insecurity, mounting U.S. debt, and Middle East geopolitical conflicts. They argue that the future stability of the dollar and financial markets remains very much tied to the fate of oil, a sobering reflection on a key challenge to U.S. foreign policy and international financial diplomacy. Scholars and statesmen alike should take note of the provocative analysis in Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises.' Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Minority Member, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee

'Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises is compelling reading, not simply because it clearly explains the global curse of 'black gold.' It also weaves together the interdependent relationships binding the inherently cyclical foundations of the petroleum sector with global currency dislocations, wealth transfer adjustments impacting emerging markets, radical income disruptions in countries that produce oil (and other commodities), and the domestic and international repercussions for geopolitics and global violence. No other study articulates so pointedly the core global issues that impact today's global political economy. It takes the combined talents and analyses of two leading scholars from the overlapping professions of economics, Middle East studies, and energy studies to be able to provide the general public, scholarly professionals and policymakers alike with this seminal, pioneering study of the issues at the heart of today's globalized world.' Edward L. Morse, Managing Director at Louis Capital Markets, former Chief Energy Economist at Lehman Brothers and publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly

Book Description

Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises studies the links between past and present oil crises, financial crises, and geopolitical conflicts to offer new insights into the driving forces that keep bringing the world to the brink of economic catastrophe.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0521896142
• ISBN 13: 9780521896146
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232