Biden Shakes His Caracas

Biden's mating dance to “other” dictators is an embarrassment. [The Rude Awakening] October 07, 2022 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Biden Shakes His Caracas - Pissed off at the Saudis (and Russians, of course), Joke Biden looks elsewhere for oil. - In his finite wisdom, Mularkey itself courts Iran and Venezuela. - Not sure how this “strategy” - his word, not mine - helps the US. URGENT: 2-Minute Clip [James Altucher]( [Please take a moment and go here now to see my new clip.]( It’s short. Only about 2 minutes or so. But it’s about a fast-moving situation that could hand investors the chance to double-their-money in a week – even during this market selloff. [The proof will SHOCK you]( But you need to see this new clip now, before it gets pulled down. [So please, go here now to watch this urgent 2-minute clip.]( [Click Here To Learn More]( [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Dear Reader, Happy Friday! We’re finally here, and the coffee tastes all the better. After reading this piece, you may need something stronger later in the day. At 12:01 pm, perhaps. As I stand here in Italy awaiting an extra frosty winter thanks to these idiotic policies, I wonder why Americans think they’ll escape an energy crisis. Sure, America is in a far, far better place than Europe is energy-wise. But that doesn’t mean America will be unscathed. In fact, these lousy policies will also drive up America’s energy prices to the moon. US politicians seem to forget that oil is priced off global supply and demand, not just American supply and demand. In this Rude, I’ll rehash the Biden Administration's steps, what they’d like to do, and what they should do to relieve the Western consumer. Sanctions, Price Caps, and Export Bans Right now, the West reminds me of what’s perhaps the funniest UK comedy skit ever. [biden] Credit and watch the skit here: [YouTube](. Sometimes you do things you regret and just can’t get out of them. Right now, the Biden administration is tied up in knots. It can’t seem to extricate itself from this hole. Let’s review some of the stupidity. Sanctions Sometimes, I feel like I rant about sanctions too often. If logic fails Creepy Joe, the empirical results are in. Sanctions have hurt Europe the most. America and Russia are a distant second. My point has always been that sanctions don’t work. And putting sanctions on the world’s sixth-largest economy by GDP PPP is beyond dumb. They’ve boomeranged back on us with frightening speed. So as not to belabor the point, here are [my writings on sanctions]( if you fancy reading or re-reading them. Price Caps Paging Trickie Dickie. Paging Trickie Dickie. Price caps used to be a running joke among anyone with a modicum of economics knowledge. Nevertheless, price caps are a disaster. It disincentivizes producers from keeping up the quality of their output. Price caps also disincentivize companies from investing in themselves (capital expenditure or CAPEX), eroding their assets’ efficiency. A lack of CAPEX also means companies don’t find better ways to provide services or improve their products. The worst part is that it creates shortages, constricting supply when you need supply to expand. This drives prices up, not down. And in this case, price caps won’t work because the rest of the world (who aligned with Russia and China) won’t adhere to them. Export Bans Just when you thought the idiot parade was long enough, they start talking about export bans. From the [Australian Financial Review]( Brian Deese, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, slammed OPEC’s decision as “unnecessary and unwarranted” and said the president was considering all options available including banning or limiting American oil exports. “We have said this before, and I will say this again: the president has directed that we have all options on the table, and that will continue to be the case. And so, that’s how we’re approaching this question.” Such a move would likely worsen Europe’s energy crisis. The US is the third-largest oil exporting nation; the country sent 8.54 million barrels of petrol a day to 176 countries last year. Yes, it would hurt Europe. It might hurt Russia. But it would undoubtedly hurt Americans! Again, gas is priced on the world markets, not just the American market. Tightening world oil supplies would drive up the price in America. If you want a recent example of how export bans make things worse, here you are, courtesy of the [World Bank]( Consider the full export ban of a food product. Intuitively, the ban reduces the supply of the product in global markets. Other things the same, this measure results in an increase in the world price of the good. How much will this price increase be? It depends. The impact on the world price is affected by factors such as the change in world food supply (i.e., how important a country is in the global export supply of the product) and how elastic imports are with respect to trade costs (i.e., how rigid demand is in the face of shocks). … Export bans in products such as rice, wheat, and citrus fruits have led to increases in prices estimated at respectively 12.3 percent, 9 percent, and 8.9 percent. Also, in this case, the increase in price is driven by the reduction in the supply of top exporters: India for rice, with a share of exports of 33 percent; Russia for wheat, with a share of exports of 17.5 percent; and Turkey for citrus fruits, with a share of exports of 13.5 percent. For products such as soya bean oil and maize (corn), the exporters imposing restrictions are not among the top 5 world exporters. However, the demand of these products tends to be more inelastic and therefore the impact on prices is still significant. Specifically, existing export bans are estimated to have increased prices by 14 percent in the case of soya bean oil and by 6.1 percent in the case of maize. If export bans don’t work for food, why on earth would they work for oil? [Click here to learn more]( James Altucher has been helping people make a fortune with cryptocurrencies for several years. The whole internet laughed at him when Bitcoin crashed from its high of over $19,000… … but the laughing stopped when Bitcoin rocketed even higher, just as James predicted… … hitting over $60,000 in value. Now it has crashed again… and James is back with a NEW prediction about how to make a fortune with cryptocurrencies. And it’s NOT with Bitcoin. [Click here to find out what James is predicting now… and how to make up to an 8,788% return with crypto by 2025.]( [Click Here To Learn More]( Courting Other Dictators This is yet another failed strategy. But I must say, this tweet made me laugh: [Click here to learn more]( Credit and watch the video here: [@EthanBWinter]( I had a good chuckle. This video recreates the scene in Moneyball where the A’s are trying to make up for Jason Giambi going to the Yankees. In this case, this guy uses the analogy to replace Russia’s oil with Venezuelan, Iranian, and American oil. He batted .333, in my estimation. But I’ll get to America shortly. First, Saudi Arabia is the devil you know. Why on earth you’d trade them for their sworn enemy, Iran, or another enemy, Venezuela, is beyond me. It’s short-term, headless chicken thinking. Iran’s mullahs are laughing right now, and it’s a fool’s errand to deal with them on these terms. As for Venezuela, [I’ve already written why that should be a no-go](. America shouldn’t be playing their favorite dictators off each other. It’s an awful look. But homegrown stuff? Now, that’s a great idea. Of course, that idea didn’t come from Biden. Oh, Canada! When we talk homegrown, we need to include the Kanuckleheads. The only good thing that’s come out of the Keystone XL pipeline shutdown is that it’s deprived El Fidelito del Norte of revenue. But all things equal, I’d love to see Canadian crude head south through a big pipeline. And I’d love to see the US ramp up its production. It’s important to understand that America’s light, sweet crude isn’t the be-all and end-all. Light, sweet crude produces gasoline, gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuels. Canada’s (and Russia’s) heavy crude provides feedstock for plastics, petrochemicals, other fuels, and road surfacing. Heavy oil can also be refined into transportation fuels. You need both, folks. And America only has one of them in abundance. Wrap Up Robert Gates was right about Biden. He’s been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy decision for 40 years. Make that 50 years. And it’s showing. The administration’s combined room temperature IQ is coming up with short-term, illusory solutions to long-term problems. I think energy prices will rocket again in a few months and that energy stocks will be the big winners. But for now, have a wonderful weekend. You deserve it! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Editor, Rude Awakening P.S. My erstwhile colleague Jim Rickards has come up with [yet another gem](. His “i3” system has called out some big winners over the last few months. When Putin called up 300,000 in his partial mobilization, Jim’s i3 readers were already appropriately positioned and had a “two-bagger.” A “two-bagger” is when you double your money. Not only did they double their money, but they doubled their money in only six days! So many subscribers want to get into Jim’s new system that we’ve extended the deadline to Sunday, October 9th, at midnight. Head over [here to learn more about Jim’s latest profit-making machine](. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( Rude Awakening is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your Rude Awakening e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Rude Awakening, feel free to [click here.]( Please read our [Privacy Statement](. 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