The general rule about falling oil prices has been simple: Producing countries like Russia and Venezuela will suffer, while consuming countries like China, India and Indonesia will benefit. And thats a very useful guide with one important exception -- the United States is both the top producer and consumer of oil. For most Americans, the effect is clearly positive. Falling gas prices are like a huge tax cut, money that stays with consumers and is likely to be spent on other things. For American oil producers, its not such good news, though they will try to lower costs and become more efficient. Economics aside, the trends look pretty positive for America. Many of the complications it faces in the world are fueled by high oil prices. From Russia to Iran to Venezuela, lower oil prices could make combative countries more cautious. Meanwhile, the American economy continues to grow, with a recovery that appears sustainable and increasingly robust. American technology companies continue to dominate the industries of the future. American society remains vibrant, fueled by immigration. Even American government -- certainly compared with its peers in Europe and Japan -- has performed extremely well. Its quite possible that 2015 will turn out to be the year of America. edition.cnn/2015/01/05/opinion/zakaria-year-america/index.html
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:02:33 +0000
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