Oil is everywhere. It’s all around us. It’s in everything and it makes the world go around. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that renewable energy will comprise 27% of the world’s energy production by 2050, all things being equal. Pretty great, right? Not really. Based upon population and economic growth trends, the EIA also predicts that the use of liquid fuels will continue to increase over the same period. So as much as we think we might be getting ahead, we’re really not. But there’s another side of oil that most people rarely think about and that’s its value as a currency. Yes, a currency. We tie in good ol’ Milton Friedman again to discuss how trading this ubiquitous fuel went from commodity to casino, making it more difficult to break this habit than one might imagine. 

Chapters

Intro: 00:01:31

Prologue: 00:04:35

Chapter 1: 00:05:19

Chapter 2: 00:13:53

Oil Rundown: 00:19:54

Skit: 00:24:39

Chapter 3: 00:28:27

Chapter 4: 00:41:23

Chapter 5: 00:50:58

Show Notes: 00:57:22

Book Love: 00:57:44

Pod Love: 00:59:46

Emails + Shout Outs: 01:18:14

Outro: 01:29:32

Resources

World Population Review: Richest African Countries 2022

Trading Economics: Corruption Rank by Country | Africa

Worldometer: Equatorial Guinea Oil

Democracy Now!: African Dictatorships and Double Standards

U.S. Energy Information Administration: International Energy Outlook 2021

Book Love

Peter Maass: Crude World- Required reading for anyone interested in the dark underbelly of the oil and gas trade. 

Leif Wenar: Blood Oil- Not my favorite. A little overreaching in the historical and socio-political connections it tries to make but contains some solid anecdotal insights to support a broader thesis of corruption. 

Morgan Downey: Oil 101- A fundamental book to understand the product itself and the markets that move it. 

Dan Dicker: Oil’s Endless Bid- Pedestrian but informative account of what it’s like to be a commodities trader and what went wrong with the business. 

Leah McGrath Goodman: The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World’s Oil Market- If you’re really into this topic, this is the book for you. I came to it late as it came out in 2011 but it’s an excellent, deep narrative dive into a world that very few people know or understand.

Bernard Harcourt: The Illusion of Free Markets- We’ve talked about Harcourt a lot. The first few sections of the book are very inaccessible but provide an invaluable history of the impact of Enlightenment thinking on the new class of free market promoters. 

Emily Lambert: The Futures- Possibly one of my favorite business books of all time. A great read told in fun and engaging anecdotes that helps anyone access and understand the bizarre world of the markets. 

Pod Love

American Scandal: Enron

UNFTR Episode Resources

F*ck Milton Friedman.

The Climate Industrial Complex.

The Global Order of Money.

A (Mostly) Vegan World.

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Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Daniel Plainview and distributed by wildcatters.

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