And it was those sneaky Arabs who snipped his braces and left him with his trousers round his ankles. Alas, his embarrassment has not be assuaged by the sight of 'Vlad the Impaler' similarly clutching hold of his trousers with one hand whilst vainly shaking his begging bowl with the other.
To be precise, it was the Saudis who, despite the pleadings of several small oil producing countries, decided not to cut their production in an effort to force the price of oil higher. The good news is that the Marxist crooks who run Venezuela almost burst into tears, and Mother Russia has had a nervous breakdown! Of course, the Saudis who are sitting on gargantuan mountains of foreign currency holdings can afford to play a long game, particularly as it will force the Americans to, as it were, 'get real!'
American shale oil has has been a critical - although by no means the only - reason for the world glut of oil and the subsequent drop in price. It has made America almost oil-independent and it has been mooted, although President 'Dumbnuts' has not been able to make up what passes for his mind, that the USA would again become a global exporter of oil. However, the Saudis know full well that below $70 a barrel, the high costs of producing shale oil would bankrup this emerging industry. If large scale bankruptcies were to occur in this industry which has, in true American style, grown on the back of borrowed money the seismic shocks would reach into the heart of the financial industry, too.
Of course, one possibility would be for President 'Dumbnuts' to stop pouring in all that government money to the Greenie-loonies and their ridiculous and mostly crooked enterprises and instead divert it to the shale oil industry which would keep America oil-independent. (To be fair, I am not pushing that policy hard because I haven't thought it through and, by and large, I am against governments using their citizens' money to prop-up industries.) However, the Saudis have demonstrated, not for the first time, that they are determined to hold the whip hand over global oil supplies. Today they are playing hard poker and, alas, poor old 'Dumbnuts' in the White House is quite incapable of playing even Ludo!
I should add that according to the experts the drop in oil prices is not only due to over-production but also to a lowering of demand from China, Japan and Europe. Anyway, whatever the reason I am delighted at the price drop because my little Toyota Yaris gives me an average fuel consumption of 65 miles per gallon of diesel and that is the reason why everytime I park it in my carport I kiss its little bonnet - even if this has led to some rumours amongst my neighbours!
