Posted on Aug. 17, 2007
By Michael J. Economides and Pavel Romanov
Two decades of Pax Americana are coming to a screeching halt. Starting with Ronald Reagan, the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, the world was supposed to enter a new era of democracy, freedom, and free enterprise, far away from what everybody thought was stifling state control.
Fat chance. It all began with the low oil prices Ronald Reagan precipitated in the mid-80s by persuading Saudi Arabia to flood the market. This caused the Soviet Union, whose economy was then entirely dependent on oil and gas for hard currency, to crash. Those very same oil prices have now gone full circle, giving Russia and others renewed reasons for bravado. Enough to once again cover their other deficiencies.