I'm John Benson with my good colleague Michael Bernstein of the Hoover Institution.

We followed Russia and the

sanctions. We followed the Ukraine war via the Russian budget. We now follow the Straits of Formuz and the

Babam and Dhab and the price of oil and fertilizer and liquefied natural gas and other exotic

materials that are necessary to run the planet. Now we're going to follow

something even bigger and more infamous. OPEC. It's the winter of 73-74. I'm in London.

The lights are out at the British Museum. John, a very young seminary student, is wondering

around the British Museum trying to get oriented,

but they won't turn the lights on.

So all I have is the sunlight coming from the roof windows down across the Roman collection.

I remember it vividly.

And back to my bed sitter, you could put as many shillings as you want into the meter.

There was no heat coming out.

It was a bad time in London.

That was OPEC.

Here we are all these decades later, Michael.

Is OPEC still powerful because somebody just left the room?

OPEC is in its terminal stage.

Next year it will be 60 years old.

I wouldn't give it to the age of retirement to 65, because OPEC existed at the time of global

world oil shortages.

What happened in the last 20 years has been a major energy revolution, namely the United States shale revolution.

...