Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises
The Global Curse of Black Gold

This book explains the links between past and present oil crises, financial crises, and geopolitical conflicts.

Mahmoud A. El-Gamal (Author), Amy Myers Jaffe (Author), James A. Baker, III (Foreword by)

9780521896146, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 December 2009

232 pages, 38 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises is compelling reading, not simply because it clearly explains the global curse of 'black gold.' It also weaves together the interdependent relationships binding the inherently cyclical foundations of the petroleum sector with global currency dislocations, wealth transfer adjustments impacting emerging markets, radical income disruptions in countries that produce oil (and other commodities), and the domestic and international repercussions for geopolitics and global violence. No other study articulates so pointedly the core global issues that impact today's global political economy. It takes the combined talents and analyses of two leading scholars from the overlapping professions of economics, Middle East studies, and energy studies to be able to provide the general public, scholarly professionals and policymakers alike with this seminal, pioneering study of the issues at the heart of today's globalized world.' Edward L. Morse, Managing Director at Louis Capital Markets, former Chief Energy Economist at Lehman Brothers and publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly

Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises studies the causes of the current oil and global financial crisis and shows how America's and the world's growing dependence on oil has created a repeating pattern of banking, currency, and energy-price crises. Unlike other books on the current financial crisis, which have focused on US indebtedness and American trade and economic policy, Oil, Dollars, Debt, and Crises shows the reader a more complex picture in which transfers of wealth to and from the Middle East result in a perfect storm of global asset and financial market bubbles, increased unrest, terrorism and geopolitical conflicts, and eventually rising costs for energy. Only by addressing long-term energy policy challenges in the West, economic development challenges in the Middle East, and the investment horizons of financial market players can policymakers ameliorate the forces that have been causing repeating global economic crises.

1. The challenges of resource curses and globalization
2. New Middle East: childhood 1973–84 and adolescence 1985–95
3. Road to the status quo: 1996–2008
4. Globalization of Middle East dynamics
5. Dollars and debt: the end of the dollar era?
6. Motivations to attack or abandon the dollar
7. Resource curses, global volatility, and crises
8. Ameliorating the cycle
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International business [KJK], Finance [KFF], Political economy [KCP], Economics of industrial organisation [KCD], Economics, finance, business & management [K], Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB]