Hey Unf*ckers, it’s Max. Just wanted to weigh in very quickly. This is an episode that we’ve dropped already, it’s called Peak Oil.

We dropped it a few months back to try and explain why oil prices were so high. It is a very deep dive into the history of oil prices, commodities markets, and all of the factors that go into the price of oil and the exchanges that they’re traded on.

So we go through the history of the Mercantile Exchange, adding oil as a commodity on the exchange in the early ’70s, the disruptions due to the Iranian oil embargo and the OPEC embargo in the ’70s, how that influenced the volatility and the pricing markets, all of the different actors and exchanges that grew along the way to begin to manipulate prices through to where we are today, to where there’s only a handful of players that really determine the market price of oil.

Now, the reason that we’re re-dropping this particular one is because tomorrow we’re dropping a half Topical Cream, half full Unf*cking on the price of gasoline today. So what’s different is we discussed the history of oil pricing as a commodity and how it relates to gas prices and prices at the pump in this episode. But the one that we’re dropping tomorrow really drills more deeply into the inputs behind gas prices right now. When we say it’s $5 at the pump, how did it get there? What does that actually mean?

So I feel like this first episode does a really good job explaining the market in general and how oil basically moves from the ground to wind up as something that’s traded on commodity exchanges. But the one that we’re going to drop tomorrow—again, half Topical Cream, half full Unf*cking—is really an explainer behind what drives the prices when you take that pump out of your hands at the gas station and you put it in your car. We’re going to explain why those fucking stickers that you see at the pump of Joe Biden being like “I did this,” couldn’t be further from the fucking truth.

So we’re going to dispel a whole bunch of myths tomorrow. We’re going to pack you with enough information and resources to destroy all of the myths that you hear in the pundit class and in the mainstream media. And I know this is a really obnoxious thing to say, but I promise you everything that you’re hearing in the mainstream media and in that punditry class is wrong. They’re all getting it wrong, and we’ll explain why.

So enjoy this re-release of Peak Oil and look out for the episode tomorrow titled $5 Gasoline.

Chapters

A Note From Max: 00:00:00

Intro: 00:04:24

Prologue: 00:07:28

Chapter 1: 00:10:21

Chapter 2: 00:13:53

Oil Rundown: 00:19:46

Skit: 00:27:32

Chapter 3: 00:31:20

Chapter 4: 00:44:16

Chapter 5: 00:53:51

Show Notes: 01:00:15

Book Love: 01:03:08

Pod Love: 01:08:54

Emails + Shout Outs: 01:24:07

Outro: 01:32:25

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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