The Curse of Oil

There is considerable hand-wringing about the high price of oil and its impact upon our economy. During the 1970s there were many who thought that eleven country coalition of OPEC would end up dominating the world economy because of their vast oil reserves. Just as these countries never reached their full potential then, I’m convinced that they will continue to lag in the future due to their repressive regimes and unwillingness to open their markets.

The eleven countries of OPEC have a combined population of 525 million and combined GDP of $887 billion. Compared to the USA that is almost twice our population but 1/13th of our GDP. We have 3 states alone (CA, NY and TX) that have more of a state GDP than these eleven have combined.

The largest GDP of the group is Saudi Arabia with $211 billion. We have Wisconsin and 18 other states that individually have a larger state GDP than Saudi Arabia.

Of particular note is that 10 of the 11 countries of OPEC are over 50% Muslim countries. Venezuela is the sole exception. I’ll have stats on the Muslim countries tomorrow.