Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

Oil politics are a rich field for conspiracy theory. There certainly are back channels between Washington and Riyadh. Secretary of State Kerry was in the gulf in the fall of 2014. The Saudis had every reason to act, if not over Ukraine then over Syria.66 Along with Iran, Russia was the main backer of Assad’s die-hard regime. Saudi Arabia was its sworn enemy. There is no conclusive proof. Nor is a conspiracy necessary to explain these concurrent events. The oil market was under stress. America’s new fracking technology had opened up a new source of supply that was cheap and highly elastic. From the point of view of the Russian economy, in any case, the ultimate motivation was irrelevant. Oil prices plunged from $112 per barrel in June to around $60 per barrel by December 2014 and kept on falling. On top of sanctions and tightening credit conditions, it was a body blow.