I’m going to make Saudi Arabia an international pariah
Candidate Joe Biden
China and Saudi Arabia signed dozens of commercial agreements valued at $29 billion, entirely behind closed palace doors.
WSJ Headline Friday
Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy decision in last 4 decades
Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates
So here we are. Team Biden has driven a former ally, the Saudis, into the arms of China. This is precisely the wrong outcome for a Middle East worried about Iran.
As previously noted in this space, Team Biden now begs the very worst despots like Maduro in Venezuela for oil. He has abandoned American energy independence. He refuses to relent on his American carbon war. As Rham Emanuel warns Japan not to rely on energy despots, hey all your friends at the White House on that note!
The EU hatched the idea of paying Putin no more than $60 a barrel for his oil. It reminds me of Churchill’s address to Parliament in January 1940 regarding neutrality toward the Nazis.
Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.
Indeed Time Magazine’s Man of the Year, President Zelensky, has warned this will hardly deter our current candidate for Crocodile of This Year. German scrambles to complete a five year project of an LNG terminal before this winter. This is a result of German thinking that they too could make nice with Mr. Putin by relying on him to provide near all their energy needs.
Markets amaze. The price of West Texas Intermediate WTIC has fallen to its lowest level this year, $71.46 on Thursday’s close. Energy shares however have found new luster in Wall Street Portfolios. Energy ETF XLE has soared from $50 to $85.11 this year. Giant Exxon Mobil from $60 to $105 in that period. Warren Buffet has taken large positions in energy companies. The upshot is that wise investors see the advantage of crude oil reserves in the ground.
And one can see trading slow on the NYSE tape. With Christmas and New Year Day on Sundays we will have back to back four day trading weeks. For now the SPX and NASD remain in bear markets. The speed of collapse of FTX should give everyone pause.
Holiday recommendation: The Family Man is an outstanding role for Nick Cage. For a Viktor Bout reality check watch the movie he inspired, Lord of War. The prisoner exchange is surely the Christmas Present Vlad wanted.
