–I would not want to try overtaking these crude-oil luvvin’ guys on a roundabout if I was on a bicycle and they were driving a giant gasoline truck.

Reporting and opinion by Mathew Carr*

This is a review of a podcast recorded April 17, where Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global was asked questions on the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast. Co hosts were Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway.

Yergin was introduced as a legend of oil history …and it’s true he’s deeply immersed in the black sticky stuff.

Here are a summary of Yergin’s blind spots, which together add up to an assessment of the future that is much bleaker and violent than it need be….and than it’s going to be.

The three humans in the podcast seem in desperate need of a cuddle by someone (not me).

Blind spot one

No Daniel, the Iran violence was not started by Iran’s blockade of the Hormuz Strait. The blockade began after Trump and Netanyahu’s administrations began violently pounding the natio for no reason I can see that complies with international war law.

The blame for the violence and the massive global inflation that has followed lies solely with those two over-promoted men, pending an investigation into what happened — including into so-called “leaders” at market-propaganda outlets like Bloomberg and Murdoch’s WSJ…and dare I say it? …S&P Global.

Blind spot two

Yergin then conflates the actions of these two violent men (again, merely two over-promoted puppets … maybe) into some sort of permanent market risk whereby all oil tankers will now need hugely expensive security blankets of some kind and all ships will now be targets, justifying the need for massive defence spending, AI-controlled drones …vast quantities of electricity.

This is plainly not true, merely a scary outlier scenario. The world need not expect that two violent thugs like these two will ever get this much political and market power, ever again.

A market leader in gas (USA) brutally attacking its second biggest rival (Iran) to win market share might be the worst violation of the spirit of competition law in world history. Violent Russia is the second biggest gas producer and America’s biggest rival in the market …hmmmm? …did America provoke Russia into war in 2022 by stopping its collaboration with the EU? Yes, it did.

Mr Trump speaks of loving free markets while taking them around the back alley to violently smash their pretty faces with a large, grey brick.

Blind spot three

Europe does not, Mr Yergin, now need to reverse its climate-protection measures and follow the US strategy of massive oil and natural gas development to regain independence.

Crude oil/natgas is CAUSING the global security crisis. And it pretty much always has for the past 120 years or so (when Britain first stole Iran’s fossil fuels wtf?! … as you point out in the podcast. (I guess there is a chance violent Iran and violent Trump are in cahoots via violent Pakistan …it needs investigating).

Yet the oil crisis, on the balance of probabilities, is deliberately CAUSED by Trump — in part to sell weapons and stoke inflation, and it will make countries more determined than ever to switch to cleaner alternatives, Mr Yergin.

Blind spot four

The climate crisis is not a flawed narrative as you imply, Mr Yergin. It’s hurting 8 billion people right now. The giant global Liquefied Natural Gas industry is an expensive, climate-killing folly that encourages violence (that I helped create). It does have its uses, to be sure.

Environment, social, governance (ESG) investing was not a temporary blip. It’s just that investors and the business sector are surprisingly cowardly when it comes to money. They largely don’t seem to care about upcoming generations. They are willing to be bullied whimps …and make off like bandits.

This cowardice is changing. ESG is here to stay. Mr Trump is probably about to become a lame-duck president in November.

Blind spot five

Peace can occur via expensive, wasteful strength, but it need not.

The world will soon realise it’s wasted hundreds of billions of dollars on unneeded wars, spies and officials acting against the interests of ordinary taxpayers.

Much of the bad behavior has been deliberately hidden and the three so-called experts on the podcast completely ignored the vast multi-decade Epstein cover up in their deeply flawed analysis.

(more to come)

*I was fired by Bloomberg in 2020