MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Why the US should worry about oil sector jobs
Outside of individual's holding oil stocks, damage to the economy from the fall in oil has been pretty minimal so far. Indeed, the price cut in home heating oil and gasoline has probably outweighed the damage from lower oil prices… so far. Unfortunately, this situation may not last. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesOilprice keeps trotting out these articles trying to create a feeling of crisis.
May 02nd, 2015 - 07:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0Any economy will have winners and losers for any boom.
Plenty of posters on here (along with news articles) were quick to point out how well Western Australia was doing and how it might even leave Australia because it didn't need the rest of us dragging it down.
Well now Western Australia is in trouble and it is the rest of Australia that needs provide the money to help it. Stevie and Nostrils waxed lyrical about how bad my state was because car manufacturing was departing Australia for cheaper and less educated countries (such as Argentina).
Resource prices go up and down and manufacturing ebbs and flows but a modern developed economy is more than just one sector such as iron ore or oil.
@1. I take your points. Of course, every area or region has its own peculiarities. I am thinking of Scotland and last year's independence referendum. Whatever the Scottish National Party or its supporters are saying now, the fact is that 'it was all about the oil'. According to the SNP and its leader, an independent Scotland would be amongst richest countries in Europe, if not the richest. The glee with which scots pushed this was akin to the 'It's Scotland's Oil' slogan in the 70s. Two amusing facts were the drop in oil prices and the new SNP leader's immediate demand that the UK government support the UK oil industry. Including the minor fact that it suddenly changed from the Scottish oil industry.
May 02nd, 2015 - 10:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0What people always forget is that there are other factors. I wasn't aware that Western Australia had been contemplating leaving Australia, but it strikes me as comparable. The problem is that one sector cannot support everything. The SNP started to see businesses in Scotland getting ready to leave. After all, Scotland couldn't join the EU for at least 2 years. Not least because it would be required to join ERM II for that period. The UK rejected currency union, so Scotland would have required its own currency. So, Scotland would be non-EU while the rest of the UK might be in the EU. Therefore border controls. Therefore taxes on goods crossing the border, under EU rules. Scotland stood to lose the majority of its defence industry. Particularly ship-building. Scots were also keen to mention how they paid more tax to the UK exchequer. Since income tax rates are the same across the UK, that could only be down to oil revenue. So 'Scotland' had only paid more in taxation since the mid-70s. For some reason no account was taken of the other 267 years.
It just goes to show that the single-minded have no idea about how the world works. That may explain Kirchner & co. The US shouldn't be too bothered.
2
May 02nd, 2015 - 11:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Do you feel better for that...?
FYI the price of oil drops...the price of oil rises...
You appear to be living in the moment...
That's probably because you don't have much of a future old timer...do you...?
Have you got a plot lined up yet....? ..think about it...
The question is Voice, do you feel better after that?
May 03rd, 2015 - 12:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0Your comment just descended into yet another personal attack. You just can't help yourself.
Congrats.
Conqueror
Western Australia asked to leave the federation in the 1930s but the Privvy Council in London denied their request.
To put WA in some context, if you overlaid Australia on Europe, its capital is in Ireland while Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra are in Turkey.
There was never any real possibility of WA again attempting to leave Australia. For most of our existence as a nation, WA has been a net recipient of federal funds. It only stopped about 7 years ago.
Now the mining investment boom has ended and they are again crying poor.
Scotland is a more viable nation-stare than WA simply because it could be part of the EU whereas WA would be a country the size of Western Europe with 3 million people tucked away in the south and the north exposed to 230 million poor and crowded Indonesians.
@4. You think Scotland would be a viable nation-state? Be realistic. After reading up, it seems that Western Australia has a considerable number of resources. One might have thought enough to be a separate nation-state. But you say that for most of Australia's existence, WA has been a net recipient of federal funds. What do you think Scotland has been for 308 years? Let's start off in 1707. Scotland was given a huge loan to avoid a tiny part of the newly-formed UK going bankrupt. Has there ever been any sign of Scotland paying that loan back? With notional interest of, say, 5% per annum, Scotland owes England more than £2 quadrillion. To put that into context, Scotland would have to give England its entire GDP for around the next 17,000 years to pay it off. And scots think that a few extra decimal points of tax for 40 years makes up for that! Every year, that portion of UK financial resources available for infrastructure gets parcelled out in accordance with the Barnett formula. Who gets the least? The largest of the 4 countries. England. Who gets the most? Well, it's tiny Northern Ireland. And then super-wealthy, 'we can be independent' Scotland gets the next highest amount. And it has been pointed out that the Barnett formula takes into account oil revenues from the UK Continental Shelf. The scots conveniently 'forget' that, as of 2011, the UK hands over £1,624 more every year for every scot than it spends on comparable English needs. And thus scots get many 'services' for free that the English have to pay for. It has nothing to do with the scotch 'government' choosing to spend more on human needs. It has to do with there being more money available. Paid for by the English. At least it's being examined. Once sorted, scotland will get LESS. But maybe we'll get shot of them before they figure it out. And maybe they'll get an immigrant 'problem' as well!
May 03rd, 2015 - 10:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0Skip...yeah the silly old man uses anything as an excuse to Scot Bash...
May 03rd, 2015 - 03:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0An attack on the Scots..in return an attack on the nearly dead...
seems fair to me...
5
Wrong the North of England gets more than Scotland...
Plus...if you had a car you might have noticed the price of petrol sneaking up again...but you don't do you...
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