Friday, August 3, 2012

Apologies to the World


Click to enlarge.

This chart shows the number of barrels of oil that the world could theoretically purchase each month (in millions) using the proceeds of our U.S. trade deficit. For comparison purposes, we averaged 570 million barrels ourselves each month over the last year.

Sorry world. Our party ended in 2000. Perhaps we should have sent a memo. I hope you weren't counting on us for unlimited prosperity.

I also offer my country's sincerest condolences for providing you with that head fake in 2008/2009. Ben Bernanke plugged that hole the instant it was spotted. $39 oil will not be tolerated! We need high oil prices in order for our country to prosper! That's the theory anyway. I guess. You tell me and we'll both know.

And lastly, I want to assure you that we have not lost interest in filling our landfills with your cheap goods. Please continue to send them and we will continue to send you dollars in exchange. We've got $11 trillion looking for a new home. And when I say new home, I don't mean vacant home. We've already got plenty of those. In fact, they are clogging our school bus routes. Sigh.

See Also:
Sarcasm Disclaimer

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

4 comments:

Who Struck John said...

So in other words, if we weren't importing oil, we wouldn't have a trade deficit. Remind me again why fracking is bad and corn ethanol is good?

Stagflationary Mark said...

Who Struck John,

Remind me again why fracking is bad and corn ethanol is good?

It's all a part of the master plan.

FIRST we'll use the oil from every other country until they run dry. THEN we'll start using our oil! Genius!

Hey, just a tongue-in-cheek thought. ;)

Scott said...

Our crude demand will probably be stagnant for quite a while.. the question mark is China's demand of course. I think that it could drop quite a bit.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Scott,

The Chinese are too savvy to recreate our Great Depression. It's only a matter of time before they turn this around!

For the record, it is Sarcastic Saturday! Woohoo! ;)