Sheldon Richman on Oil Sanctions and the Pretense of Knowledge
The sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the EU on Iranian crude oil exports were not supposed to cause a spike in oil prices. Yet as Reuters analyst John Kemp reported this week, "the policy has backfired." This is despite the fact that President Barack Obama, a smart guy advised by a slew of other smart folks, was empowered to determine the best course of action. And yet the policy still failed. Why? As Sheldon Richman explains, it's because the matter that these "experts" were grappling with does not permit the kind of knowledge they would need to design a plan calibrated to produce the results they seek.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?