Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Iran threatens oil supplies and suddenly it's 1973 all over again

Who remembers 1973?

I sure do. Worked at the Budd Automotive plant at the time. Building frames for Torinos and Impalas and the like. The Arab oil embargo hits, and I go from making a fine paycheck to a layoff notice faster than you can say can't-make-my-payments.

Folks weren't buying Torinos and Impalas. They went to Toyotas and Datsuns like somebody had flipped a switch. Last frames I built were a special order for the Arkansas highway patrol. At least they kept with the big cars, but it wasn't enough to keep our plant going at full capacity.

That little hiccup in the economy cost me my beloved 455 Trans Am SD. In some ways it was the sweetest car I ever owned. Handled like it was on rails. Absolutely gobs of torque. She could break the tires loose when you stood on it too hard in forth gear.

I remember to this day President Nixon going on TV to say this would never happen again. Being dependent on those fickle towelheads for our oil supply just didn't cut it.

So now it's almost forty years later. Price of oil goes up every time Ahmadinejad reminds the world that he can close the straits of Hormuz in ten minutes. Which you can hardly blame him for doing given that every other day Hillary or Obama or Panetta make a point of reminding him that "all options are on the table".

Which brings me back to Nixon's promise.

How is it that after forty years we're as dependent on middle east oil as we were then?

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