UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  I wonder if any of the geniuses who negotiated the Iran nuclear agreement thought about the economic implications.  From Bloomberg:

Stocks across the Middle East tumbled as the easing of sanctions against Iran raised the prospect of a surge in oil supplies to a market already reeling from the lowest prices in more than a decade. Shares in Tehran gained.

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index dropped 5.4 percent to its lowest level since March 2011. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index fell into a so-called bear market. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks 200 of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council’s biggest companies, traded at 9.5 times estimated 12-month earnings, the lowest in almost seven years. Iran’s TEDPIX Index climbed 0.9 percent, according to data on the bourse’s website, extending Saturday’s 2.1 percent advance.

Iran, home to almost 10 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, is starting preparations to boost exports after the United Nation’s nuclear agency on Saturday said the country has complied with the terms of an international agreement to curb its nuclear program. That threatens to put further pressure on prices, hurting the oil-dependent economies of the GCC.

COMMENT:  Obviously, we love to save money at the pump.  And pump prices for Americans have plunged in the last year because of ample supplies and the oil extraction boom in our own country.  We have been heading toward energy independence.

But there's a downside.  The plunge in prices is putting severe economic pressure on many of the new companies engaged in oil exploration in America.  Some have shut down.  Bankruptcies are expected.  Where will that leave our drive for energy independence?

And the Obamans, with their contempt for fossil fuels, don't seem to care.  They see petroleum exploration as an enemy, not the tremendous asset that it is.

Our economy is in danger. 

Recession?  From what I've been reading, maybe.

January 17,  2016