The Moving Finger Writes...
It's okay. Piety and wit are in short supply too.
I just noticed. Omar Khayyam died at 83. I just turned 81. Sobering thought. I love this poem and it is so true. History is what we leave behind. The future is what we build. It is both comforting and troubling to identify with a great Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet, who I suspect if he were here would not ne able to hide his tears.
This is short. I have had great trouble summarizing so much “new history” being made in the Persian Gulf, also known as the Arabian Gulf. When I did a video, I went through six versions, trying to keep up with the insanity of it all. So allow me a chance to catch up by sharing three links looking at three aspects and providing good information that helps us understand what is coming down the road.
My kind of analysis was formed through many years of experience and typically looked three to five years into the future as best I could. Although mistakes are inevitable in what I call “futures analysis”, once you are five years out, the errors rise rapidly.
I made a mistake too often here, I tried to keep up with the old version of the 20th century called “geopolitics” because it was believed that geography was the foundation of national, regional, and international politics, the “geo” meaning earth. It is so common, people just think that way. I use another definition. In my mind, “geo” means global. Geography is important, but one of many facor. I include space as a primary sector of geopolitics too. Check back with me in 5 years.
I am rethinking my approach and was beaten into accepting that need when I foolishly tried to cover multiple issues associated with the Iran War in a single video or essay. That war is one of the most absurd and disturbing man-made disasters I have witnessed in my 81 years, It’s crazy and it’s dangerous.
So I decided to share the good words of three fine people. Let me introduce my “guests”. Marc Champion of Bloomberg is first. Yes, there is a paywall, but I can provide a free link as a subscriber that is good for 7 days. They do not tell me if that is 7 days from when you open the link or when I send it, so open it and leave it up or save it when you see it (now for current subscribers).
If it does not work for you, the second link is the direct address for subscribers, but they often allow you to read a story for free, so I will share that too. If it is more than 7 days from now when yiou arrive here, go ahead and try, but it will certainly be very dated by then! In any case, here is the Bloomberg gift link for The Risk of the Iran War Restarting Is Irrationally High. Good summary that won’t put you to sleep. This is the direct non-gift link.
The last two are straight links. Today, May 5, Tim McDonnell of Semafor brings us, The real oil price shock is getting closer. Not the most cheeful news, but no surprise.
Celebrating 107 years of serving more than 5,000,000 American farmers through 2,800 county farm bureaus, 50 state farm bureaus, plus Puerto Rico, these folks at the American Farm Bureau know farming. Dr, Faith Parum writes an important report, 70% of Farmers Cannot Afford All Fertierlizer Needed on April 14, three weeks ago, another three weeks without nitrogen shipments from the Gulf. It hasn’t gotten any better.
That does it. I hope these articles are informative in this upside-down, inside-out world we live in! Until next time…..