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Subject: Repubs promised lower oil prices with Iraq
Fortune chimed in with their rosy scenario (March 2003):
No one knows for sure which way things will go. But if you have to make a bet, the most likely scenario is that a year from now, with a new regime in Baghdad and long-dormant Iraqi wells finally pumping out crude, oil prices will be back in the mid-20s. "All expectations are that prices will come down," says Kuwait Petroleum's Sultan. "The only gray area is when." Deutsche Bank analyst Adam Sieminski is bolder: If the war is short and Saddam doesn't set fire to his fields, crude will hit $22 a barrel by this summer.
And the Heritage Foundation contributed this:
An unencumbered flow of Iraqi oil would be likely to provide a more constant supply of oil to the global market, which would dampen price fluctuations, ensuring stable oil prices in the world market in a price range lower than the current $25 to $30 a barrel. Eventually, this will be a win--win game: Iraq will emerge with a more viable oil industry, while the world will benefit from a more stable and abundant oil supply.
National Review predicted...gulp...a tax cut that never came:
"...markets clearly expect lower prices. On the eve of hostilities, oil was selling for about $37 per barrel. At this price, Americans would be paying $270 billion per year for oil. But once it became clear that Iraq's liberation was at hand, the price quickly dropped to about $28 per barrel, cutting our annual oil bill by $70 billion. With full Iraqi production, the price might drop to $20 per barrel or less, giving us the equivalent of an annual tax cut of about $120 billion per year. And this is a tax cut the entire world benefits from."
The Wall Street Journal opined:
War, What's It Good For?
The economy, for one thing.
Of course, the largest benefit--a more stable Mideast--is huge but unquantifiable. A second plus, lower oil prices, is somewhat more measurable. The premium on 11.5 million barrels imported every day by the U.S. is a transfer from us to producing countries. Postwar, with Iraqi production back in the pipeline and calmer markets, oil prices will fall even further. If they drop to an average in the low $20s, the U.S. economy will get a boost of $55 billion to $60 billion a year.
Keith S.
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