Saudi Arabia may go broke.

[20000 Leagues]

OPEC has made a habit of using oil production to influence pricing for decades. By doing so, they also had influence over policies of other countries. North American production was eroding that influence, as did a major drop in overall consumption. The Saudi's will suffer reduced gains by flooding a market already in an oil glut, but they won't be in the red anytime soon. It was actually a smart play on their part. Sure they'll get less for their oil in the short term, but their oil is much cheaper to extract than shale or oil sands.

The Saudi's can wait out the more expensive producers. Once some of them close shop, OPEC can crank the prices back up. When the other producers invest and start pumping oil again, the Saudi's can rinse and repeat as necessary.

Of course, this is the opinion of a casual foreign affairs observer. It's tough to speculate as to what motivation any of them have. The Saudi's may not have seen the glut coming. Most thought China was going to completely outpace the U.S. and drive the global economy. I was of the opposite opinion. Mainly because China is still communist and they also have a tendency to hide their scrapes and cuts. I had a discussion on another forum a couple years ago where I was in the minority in predicting China was an economic bubble waiting to burst.

[ikalugin]

Implying that there is any degree of communism or even socialism in PRC.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Implying that there is any degree of communism or even socialism in PRC.

Well, it's not exactly a democracy either.
20000 Leagues has got it pretty spot on, IMHO, because let's face it at the early part of the 21st century everyone thought that China was the new big bad. The usual prepper suspects in the US were preparing for the inevitable time that the Peoples Liberation Army Navy landed its marines in San Francisco and begun the invasion of America. Heck, the new Red Dawn was going to have the PRC as the bad guys until it realised that this would mean that it couldn't actually sell the film in the PRC.
Everyone was crying into their root beer that the Chinese were going to overtake America as the worlds number one superpower by 2020 and America was doomed.
Then we found out just how fragile that miracle growth of Chinas actually was, about how all that boom was built on some very shoddy foundations.
That's not to say that we shouldn't give the PRC a element of respect, I mean it's still a major power to contend with, and no mistake, but I think attributing some kind of mythological deification to it is probably a mistake.

[Catfish]

Fu Man Chu anyone ?
Surely a lot of brave citizens saw those films ..

[ikalugin]

You are implying that socialism is incompatable with democracy? (or theoretical comunism for that matter)

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

You are implying that socialism is incompatable with democracy? (or theoretical comunism for that matter)

Since we've yet to see true examples of either then it's hard to say.

[Betonov]

Socialism works with a free economy in a infrastructure advanced nation.

Communism can never work. It goes agaisnt the human nature.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Since we've yet to see true examples of either then it's hard to say.

Hasn't France been run by the Socialist party a couple times?

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Implying that there is any degree of communism or even socialism in PRC.

Originally Posted by Oberon

Well, it's not exactly a democracy either.

Interestingly, China defines itself, in their constitution, as a "Democratic Dictatorship". Now that's an interesting term.