Here’s a little reminder…
That’s our president with the socialist president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, of whom he said this at the G20 summit last November:
Well, it is wonderful to be joined by the President of Argentina, a great friend of not only mine but the United States. We’ve spent a lot of time together at the G20, and I have very much appreciated the engagement and the passion that President Kirchner has brought to the important global issues that we’ve been discussing.
Well, Christina has had a busy week – it hasn’t been reported much in the US but has been all over the EU – but the big news is that Chrissy just nationalized the oil industry in Argentina:
President Cristina Kirchner’s government on Monday proposed effectively nationalizing Argentina’s largest oil-and-gas company, YPF SA. She proposed taking 51% of YPF from Spain’s Repsol at a price that is yet to be determined, leaving the Spanish firm with a 6% stake.
Repsol shares fell as much as 9% Tuesday amid uncertainty over the possibility of compensation. Repsol values its stake in YPF, which represents more than 50% of Repsol’s total hydrocarbon output, at $10.5 billion.
Later Tuesday, one of Mrs. Kirchner’s most influential economic advisers scoffed at Repsol’s $10 billion compensation request. “The idiots think the state must be so stupid that it will do what the company says,” Deputy Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said during a testimony to Congress about YPF’s future.
And their fellow socialist Spaniards across the pond aren’t taking this sitting down:
Madrid threatened to retaliate as soon as this week in response to Argentina’s proposed seizure of a prized unit of Spain’s flagship oil company, as Argentina’s nationalization drive drew international rebuke and threatened to drive the relationship between Spain and its former colony to its lowest level in decades.
Spain will take “clear and forceful measures,” said Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo. These could affect commercial, energy and industrial relations between the two countries, senior officials said, and could be announced during Friday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
Never mess with a comrade’s bank account. Having worked in and around a number of socialist/communist states (like China), I can tell you that there is no one who understands capitalism more than a member of a ruling socialist government.
Think it couldn’t happen here?
Members of Congress have already called for it:
First, Maxine Waters:
Then Maurice Hinchey calling for the government to take over all the refineries.
Give Obama a Democratic Congress and four more years and he just might try it here…
The Rio Norte Line 
Don’t you think he’s already taken the first steps?
Yes, ma’am, he has.
Obamacare is the template – the destruction of the deepwater industry in the Gulf and the denial of any sort of expansion of hydrocarbon exploration, the decommissioning of coal fired power plants, are all designed to do two things – make energy production so unattractive in the US that private companies can’t afford to do it and make energy per BTU so expensive through “green” programs that the government will have to “subsidize” in order for the majority of the public to buy it. That puts them in control of the energy sector just as much as Obamacare will do in the healthcare sector (until it gets knocked out by SCOTUS).
He doesn’t have the power to nationalize these industries outright but he can do it in a de facto way by passing seemingly legitimate legislation to force the changes that he cannot legally mandate by fiat.
There is another little executive order called the Ocean Policy Initiative that seeks to give the government control over all the water in the US. From the Daily Caller:
Had’nt heard of the Ocean Policy Initiative. Does it have its very own czars, too?
Nah, just layers and layers of boards, committees and lack of transparency…just like Obamacare…
The gulf is pretty darn busy for a dying industry, don’t pull the blanket over its head yet.
Sra. Kirchner must have presented you with a dilemma, Utah, as she would be equally at home in Rule 5 post.
You are correct, Greg!
It is so busy at our business in Panama City that we just laid off 30 people to cope with all that work…and we are praying to get back to a break even there! The last major project that they are working on today is a BC10 Phase II for Shell – off the coast of Brazil – and it is nearing completion.
There hasn’t been a significant Gulf of Mexico job run in Panama City since they finished Apache Wide Berth last June. Our competition is working on Shell Cardamom/West Boreas, which they won by telling Shell if they didn’t get them, they were going to close shop – we had the better price but lost because Shell wanted two sources and we already had BC10.
The next significant Gulf Project is expected to be awarded in October, too late for any work to begin on it this year.
You are right! Happy days are here again!