OPEC Fini?

They had a good run, those oil rich countries that formed a cartel back in 1973 and called it OPEC. Its first act, as John Waggoner of USA Today reminds, was to declare:

….an oil embargo on the United States … quadrupling the cost of oil in response to U.S. aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Americans, then, were punished in the pocketbook because Israel resisted and defeated a surprise attack meant to destroy it. And for 40 years, OPEC did not let up. The cartel knew how to hold a grudge. And it got used to the big money.