The Murdoch interview with Max Walsh

The way we were

On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, Max Walsh conducted an exclusive interview with Rupert Murdoch.

“   Max Walsh: Let’s start with Iraq and the war because that looks like being one of those inflection points in history, with the world, financial markets and the business environment all being affected by what happens. How do you see events unfolding at this stage?

Some “inflection point”!

How about “Catastrophuck”?

Two smug, self-congratulatory bulls of the financial world, oblivious to the impending and utterly predictable suffering of millions of Iraqis discussing the carnage as if it was as moving as a financial chart.

Let us imagine for a moment that America owns the world by default and that it is theirs to give or take away parts of it as they see fit, because this is the only way you could understand Murdoch’s answer, that

“   Oh, I believe Bush is right, certainly. Well, we can’t back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam…

But why does he really think Bush was acting “morally”?

“   The greatest thing to come of this to the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $US20 a barrel for oil. That’s bigger than any tax cut in any country.

Damn! if only Costello had thought of somewhere to invade, before the budget. He could have given an even bigger insult bribe to the Australian people! Maybe Howard is thinking of invading Zimbabwe before the election! The way he’s been talking about Mugabe is if anything more strident than his condemnation of Saddam, even to the point of invoking the Nazis.

Sadly, Murdoch was slightly off in his calculations.

In fact, if you look closely at the graph above you can just discern that the price of oil did not go “DOWN” but edged slightly in the direction of “UP”. With a bullet.

The price of oil when he spoke was around $25 a barrel.

The price of oil now is about $66 a barrel.
And Murdoch’s 2003 crystal ball reading for Bush’s Iraqi “cakewalk”?

“   I’m not close enough to know what they really are planning. They’d certainly want to establish a democratic regime as soon as possible and they’d want to get out as soon as they can.

Double damn! Wrong again!