Paul Sabin
Philip Rousseau (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241985
- eISBN:
- 9780520931145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241985.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Energy shortages, climate change, and the debate over national security have thrust oil policy to the forefront of American politics. How did Americans grow so dependent on petroleum, and what can we ...
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Energy shortages, climate change, and the debate over national security have thrust oil policy to the forefront of American politics. How did Americans grow so dependent on petroleum, and what can we learn from our history that will help us craft successful policies for the future? This book challenges us to see politics and law as crucial forces behind the dramatic growth of the U.S. oil market during the twentieth century. Using pre-World War II California as a case study of oil production and consumption, the book demonstrates how struggles in the legislature and courts over property rights, regulatory law, and public investment determined the shape of the state's petroleum landscape. The book provides a powerful corrective to the enduring myth of “free markets” by demonstrating how political decisions affected the institutions that underlie California's oil economy and how the oil market and price structure depend significantly on the ways in which policy questions were answered before World War II. This probing analysis casts fresh light on the historical relationship between business and government and on the origins of contemporary problems such as climate change and urban sprawl.Less
Energy shortages, climate change, and the debate over national security have thrust oil policy to the forefront of American politics. How did Americans grow so dependent on petroleum, and what can we learn from our history that will help us craft successful policies for the future? This book challenges us to see politics and law as crucial forces behind the dramatic growth of the U.S. oil market during the twentieth century. Using pre-World War II California as a case study of oil production and consumption, the book demonstrates how struggles in the legislature and courts over property rights, regulatory law, and public investment determined the shape of the state's petroleum landscape. The book provides a powerful corrective to the enduring myth of “free markets” by demonstrating how political decisions affected the institutions that underlie California's oil economy and how the oil market and price structure depend significantly on the ways in which policy questions were answered before World War II. This probing analysis casts fresh light on the historical relationship between business and government and on the origins of contemporary problems such as climate change and urban sprawl.
Christopher Balding
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199842902
- eISBN:
- 9780199932498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842902.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds remain less transparent and more difficult to disentangle from the local economy than other funds. More dependent on the price of oil than almost any other ...
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Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds remain less transparent and more difficult to disentangle from the local economy than other funds. More dependent on the price of oil than almost any other economies in the world, the Gulf Funds are a microcosm of the criticisms of sovereign wealth funds. Despite strained economic relations and rhetoric over large oil surpluses, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds reveal numerous different investment strategies. While the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority is heavily invested in cash and fixed income securities, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority holds a higher risk portfolio of debt, equity, and alternative investments. Additionally, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds due to their small commodity dependent formation remain intertwined with the government and local economy. More than any other region, it is difficult to tell where a Middle Eastern government ends and the sovereign wealth fund begins. Controlled by the political structure with overlapping managers and in some cases the personal finances of the ruling elite, the Gulf funds provide a fascinating history to the development and pitfalls of sovereign wealth funds.Less
Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds remain less transparent and more difficult to disentangle from the local economy than other funds. More dependent on the price of oil than almost any other economies in the world, the Gulf Funds are a microcosm of the criticisms of sovereign wealth funds. Despite strained economic relations and rhetoric over large oil surpluses, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds reveal numerous different investment strategies. While the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority is heavily invested in cash and fixed income securities, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority holds a higher risk portfolio of debt, equity, and alternative investments. Additionally, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds due to their small commodity dependent formation remain intertwined with the government and local economy. More than any other region, it is difficult to tell where a Middle Eastern government ends and the sovereign wealth fund begins. Controlled by the political structure with overlapping managers and in some cases the personal finances of the ruling elite, the Gulf funds provide a fascinating history to the development and pitfalls of sovereign wealth funds.
Paul Sabin
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241985
- eISBN:
- 9780520931145
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241985.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
California provides a case history for the impact of oil on individual states and a microcosm of its penetration in the United States as a whole. In studying the volatile politics of the oil economy, ...
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California provides a case history for the impact of oil on individual states and a microcosm of its penetration in the United States as a whole. In studying the volatile politics of the oil economy, this book carries forward into the current century the research of historians who wrote about nineteenth-century economic development, federalism, and infrastructure. It follows James Willard Hurst's long-overgrown trail into the thicket of public land policy, business regulation, transportation development, and public finance. It also explores how the California oil market changed over time in response to the interplay of political, legal, and economic developments. The chapter addresses specifically property rights, federalism, regulatory rules, and tax policies and investment. These show the extensive and ongoing role the government played in the oil economy. The chapter then investigates the political dimensions of environmental change. The utility of oil contributed enormously to its rapid adoption and consumption.Less
California provides a case history for the impact of oil on individual states and a microcosm of its penetration in the United States as a whole. In studying the volatile politics of the oil economy, this book carries forward into the current century the research of historians who wrote about nineteenth-century economic development, federalism, and infrastructure. It follows James Willard Hurst's long-overgrown trail into the thicket of public land policy, business regulation, transportation development, and public finance. It also explores how the California oil market changed over time in response to the interplay of political, legal, and economic developments. The chapter addresses specifically property rights, federalism, regulatory rules, and tax policies and investment. These show the extensive and ongoing role the government played in the oil economy. The chapter then investigates the political dimensions of environmental change. The utility of oil contributed enormously to its rapid adoption and consumption.
Paul Sabin
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241985
- eISBN:
- 9780520931145
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241985.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Kenneth Kingsbury accurately portrayed how prices, resource consumption, and technological development interact. Behind Kingsbury's embrace of the “economic stimulus of price,” however, lurked an ...
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Kenneth Kingsbury accurately portrayed how prices, resource consumption, and technological development interact. Behind Kingsbury's embrace of the “economic stimulus of price,” however, lurked an unsettling contradiction. Legal and political struggles over property rights, regulatory rules, and public investment defined the contours of the oil economy. California's story shows the continuing importance of state governments and state politics in twentieth-century United States political history. Its petroleum and transportation policy distinguished it from other states. In the early 1990s, American concerns about petroleum supplies brought the United States into a large-scale military conflict (Persian Gulf War). At the close of the century, two Texas oil men rode into the White House with the support of the oil industry. The history of the California oil economy yields a basic insight and lesson: political decisions, as much as the consumption choices of human's everyday lives, have greatly influenced their development as a petroleum society.Less
Kenneth Kingsbury accurately portrayed how prices, resource consumption, and technological development interact. Behind Kingsbury's embrace of the “economic stimulus of price,” however, lurked an unsettling contradiction. Legal and political struggles over property rights, regulatory rules, and public investment defined the contours of the oil economy. California's story shows the continuing importance of state governments and state politics in twentieth-century United States political history. Its petroleum and transportation policy distinguished it from other states. In the early 1990s, American concerns about petroleum supplies brought the United States into a large-scale military conflict (Persian Gulf War). At the close of the century, two Texas oil men rode into the White House with the support of the oil industry. The history of the California oil economy yields a basic insight and lesson: political decisions, as much as the consumption choices of human's everyday lives, have greatly influenced their development as a petroleum society.
Ibrahim Elbadawi, Mohamed Goaied, and Moez Ben Tahar
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198822226
- eISBN:
- 9780191861208
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198822226.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics
This chapter contributes to the literature on fiscal-monetary interdependence in resource-dependent economies in the Arab World, specifically during the post-mid-1990s oil boom. It also provides ...
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This chapter contributes to the literature on fiscal-monetary interdependence in resource-dependent economies in the Arab World, specifically during the post-mid-1990s oil boom. It also provides empirical evidence on threshold effects for oil rents per capita. These findings support differentiated exchange rate regime choices in economies with low rent per capita, such as Sudan and Yemen, relative to wealthier Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and Algeria. The first group suffers from fiscal dominance, which explains their choice of soft pegged exchange rate regimes and their failure to sustain credible exchange rate-based stabilization programs. GCC countries, however, managed to maintain credible de facto pegged exchange rate regimes and convertible currencies, while Algeria graduated to a successfully managed exchange rate regime. Nevertheless, in contrast to Chile and Norway, Arab oil economies still need to establish credible fiscal rules for conducting monetary policy in order to withstand the effects of permanently lower oil prices.Less
This chapter contributes to the literature on fiscal-monetary interdependence in resource-dependent economies in the Arab World, specifically during the post-mid-1990s oil boom. It also provides empirical evidence on threshold effects for oil rents per capita. These findings support differentiated exchange rate regime choices in economies with low rent per capita, such as Sudan and Yemen, relative to wealthier Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and Algeria. The first group suffers from fiscal dominance, which explains their choice of soft pegged exchange rate regimes and their failure to sustain credible exchange rate-based stabilization programs. GCC countries, however, managed to maintain credible de facto pegged exchange rate regimes and convertible currencies, while Algeria graduated to a successfully managed exchange rate regime. Nevertheless, in contrast to Chile and Norway, Arab oil economies still need to establish credible fiscal rules for conducting monetary policy in order to withstand the effects of permanently lower oil prices.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226023540
- eISBN:
- 9780226023564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226023564.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter argues that the credibility of oil-rich Nigeria was ratified by signs of material development masquerading as its substance, purveying a “seeing-is-believing” ontology that disguised the ...
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This chapter argues that the credibility of oil-rich Nigeria was ratified by signs of material development masquerading as its substance, purveying a “seeing-is-believing” ontology that disguised the absence of a productive base. If the oil economy was somehow dubious—with its invisible and mysterious sources of wealth fueling a nation on the move—FESTAC was designed as a stabilizing force, anchoring the signs of sudden prosperity in the bedrock of tradition and culture. The value of this culture was confirmed by the spectacular scale of the festival itself.Less
This chapter argues that the credibility of oil-rich Nigeria was ratified by signs of material development masquerading as its substance, purveying a “seeing-is-believing” ontology that disguised the absence of a productive base. If the oil economy was somehow dubious—with its invisible and mysterious sources of wealth fueling a nation on the move—FESTAC was designed as a stabilizing force, anchoring the signs of sudden prosperity in the bedrock of tradition and culture. The value of this culture was confirmed by the spectacular scale of the festival itself.
Andrew Apter
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226023540
- eISBN:
- 9780226023564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226023564.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
When Nigeria hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977, it celebrated a global vision of black nationhood and citizenship animated by the exuberance of ...
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When Nigeria hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977, it celebrated a global vision of black nationhood and citizenship animated by the exuberance of its recent oil boom. This book tells the full story of this cultural extravaganza, from Nigeria's spectacular rebirth as a rapidly developing petro-state to its dramatic demise when the boom went bust. According to this book, FESTAC expanded the horizons of blackness in Nigeria to mirror the global circuits of its economy. By showcasing masks, dances, images, and souvenirs from its many diverse ethnic groups, Nigeria forged a new national culture. In the grandeur of this oil-fed confidence, the nation subsumed all black and African cultures within its empire of cultural signs and erased its colonial legacies from collective memory. As the oil economy collapsed, however, cultural signs became unstable, contributing to rampant violence and dissimulation. The Pan-African Nation unpacks FESTAC as a historically situated mirror of production in Nigeria. More broadly, it points towards a critique of the political economy of the sign in postcolonial Africa.Less
When Nigeria hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977, it celebrated a global vision of black nationhood and citizenship animated by the exuberance of its recent oil boom. This book tells the full story of this cultural extravaganza, from Nigeria's spectacular rebirth as a rapidly developing petro-state to its dramatic demise when the boom went bust. According to this book, FESTAC expanded the horizons of blackness in Nigeria to mirror the global circuits of its economy. By showcasing masks, dances, images, and souvenirs from its many diverse ethnic groups, Nigeria forged a new national culture. In the grandeur of this oil-fed confidence, the nation subsumed all black and African cultures within its empire of cultural signs and erased its colonial legacies from collective memory. As the oil economy collapsed, however, cultural signs became unstable, contributing to rampant violence and dissimulation. The Pan-African Nation unpacks FESTAC as a historically situated mirror of production in Nigeria. More broadly, it points towards a critique of the political economy of the sign in postcolonial Africa.
Ralph S. Clem and Anthony P. Maingot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035307
- eISBN:
- 9780813038292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035307.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
The book focuses on continuity and change in Venezuela's petro-diplomacy. Venezuela's foreign trade deals connected directly to both the paramount energy security issue and the desire to limit U.S. ...
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The book focuses on continuity and change in Venezuela's petro-diplomacy. Venezuela's foreign trade deals connected directly to both the paramount energy security issue and the desire to limit U.S. influence, but they also illustrated the limitations inherent in the inertial international economic system. The economic fate of Venezuela rested on its capacity to exploit that resource and, perhaps even more so, on the price set by the international market. By 1976, Venezuela's oil-driven foreign policy initiatives had run out of steam. They came up against the same two powerful hemispheric forces that had stymied Bolívar a century and a half before: fragmentation and nationalist rivalry. The chapters in this book offer insights into a wide array of questions hanging over Venezuelan foreign policy and the leadership of the maverick president, Chavez.Less
The book focuses on continuity and change in Venezuela's petro-diplomacy. Venezuela's foreign trade deals connected directly to both the paramount energy security issue and the desire to limit U.S. influence, but they also illustrated the limitations inherent in the inertial international economic system. The economic fate of Venezuela rested on its capacity to exploit that resource and, perhaps even more so, on the price set by the international market. By 1976, Venezuela's oil-driven foreign policy initiatives had run out of steam. They came up against the same two powerful hemispheric forces that had stymied Bolívar a century and a half before: fragmentation and nationalist rivalry. The chapters in this book offer insights into a wide array of questions hanging over Venezuelan foreign policy and the leadership of the maverick president, Chavez.
Shawn M. Powers and Michael Jablonski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039126
- eISBN:
- 9780252097102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039126.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter examines Google's aims to dominate the global market for information services and data. Drawing from the suggestion that “information is the new oil of the Internet and the currency of ...
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This chapter examines Google's aims to dominate the global market for information services and data. Drawing from the suggestion that “information is the new oil of the Internet and the currency of the digital world,” it explores how Google's various endeavors seek to control each facet of the data market: data production, data extraction, data refinement, data infrastructure and distribution, and demand. It shows that there is no equivalent company that has ever been capable of dominance in each facet of the oil economy to the extent that Google leads in the data economy. The chapter also discusses the commodification of information in the modern internet economy and argues that Google's interest in internet freedom and connectivity lies in the fact that its survival (in the political economy sense of the word) depends on getting more and more people online to use its complimentary services.Less
This chapter examines Google's aims to dominate the global market for information services and data. Drawing from the suggestion that “information is the new oil of the Internet and the currency of the digital world,” it explores how Google's various endeavors seek to control each facet of the data market: data production, data extraction, data refinement, data infrastructure and distribution, and demand. It shows that there is no equivalent company that has ever been capable of dominance in each facet of the oil economy to the extent that Google leads in the data economy. The chapter also discusses the commodification of information in the modern internet economy and argues that Google's interest in internet freedom and connectivity lies in the fact that its survival (in the political economy sense of the word) depends on getting more and more people online to use its complimentary services.
Heidi Scott
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816689682
- eISBN:
- 9781452949314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689682.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This chapter explores how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century representations of oil helped to establish the conditions necessary for the rise of a dynamic oil economy. Focusing on ...
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This chapter explores how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century representations of oil helped to establish the conditions necessary for the rise of a dynamic oil economy. Focusing on promotional accounts of the lighting commodity that held sway before petroleum, it shows how mid-nineteenth-century imaginings of whale oil established a set of cultural frameworks that profoundly influenced the way late-century marketers and consumers understood petroleum. It also considers the emotions and ethics of whale oil culture that foreshadow the more dominant and ubiquitous culture of petroleum and its counterculture of environmentalism today. On the side of exuberance, the marketing of whale and petroleum products has capitalized on the adventure, risk, and acquisitiveness inherent in the American psyche. On the side of catastrophe, a continuum emerges between the ethical arguments against whaling and those against oil drilling based on the desecration of the source: the whale’s body and the drilling landscape. This chapter highlights the symbolic and economic commonalities between whale oil culture and petroleum culture.Less
This chapter explores how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century representations of oil helped to establish the conditions necessary for the rise of a dynamic oil economy. Focusing on promotional accounts of the lighting commodity that held sway before petroleum, it shows how mid-nineteenth-century imaginings of whale oil established a set of cultural frameworks that profoundly influenced the way late-century marketers and consumers understood petroleum. It also considers the emotions and ethics of whale oil culture that foreshadow the more dominant and ubiquitous culture of petroleum and its counterculture of environmentalism today. On the side of exuberance, the marketing of whale and petroleum products has capitalized on the adventure, risk, and acquisitiveness inherent in the American psyche. On the side of catastrophe, a continuum emerges between the ethical arguments against whaling and those against oil drilling based on the desecration of the source: the whale’s body and the drilling landscape. This chapter highlights the symbolic and economic commonalities between whale oil culture and petroleum culture.
