Mooseman: "Seems a little too easy to make lots of claims about bad policy and not enough about bad government..... namely Iran"
While I agree that Iran's government isn't exactly what I'd term an ideal government, I don't think that they per se can be blamed for the current energy crisis. It only makes sense for Iran to produce as much oil as possible to take advantage of the high oil prices, and as far as I can tell that's exactly what they have been doing.
The problem with Iran is the whole "nuclear weapons" story and whether or not the US and /or Israel are going to attack it. Nobody can tell where this is going. I keep my ear to the ground on the Middle East and *I* have no clue what is going to happen. If war does break out then I suggest you - we all - invest in bicycles, because the oil price will shoot through the roof. The uncertainty is what helps speculators keep the price high, amongst other things.
As an interesting aside, the Iranian dvelopment of nuclear power was actually kicked off by the US, when the Shah was in power. The plan was to use Iran's plentiful uranium ores to produce nuclear power, and to export the oil that they were currently burning, which would have been more profitable (and would have helped lower the price of oil). That is still supposed to be the plan today.
Mooseman: "But good government policy can help, look at Brazil "
Absolutely, I agree with you. As I mentioned earlier, there was a move in the US to invest in the same oil-from-coal and even oil-from-shale technology that South Africa uses, DECADES ago, and this was squashed by special interest groups within America. It is not too late to build this sort of plant now, but these ARE huge plants and will take time to set up.
