Trump: Let's Just Seize Iraq's Oil

But he just loves this country too much not to

(NEWSER) - Donald Trump was quite the braggart on CNN’s State of the Union today. Highlights from Politico:

• Trump is better than Romney: “Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it,” Trump said , adding that he is “much bigger than this man and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.”
• And his company is, too: “I've built a great company. And one of the beauties of, frankly, if and when I announce, some time prior to June, you will see how big my company is, because it's much bigger and much more powerful and much stronger than anyone really knows.”

As US drivers complain, those overseas think we're lucky

(NEWSER) - Gas prices are climbing again, which means people are complaining, which means it's time for a spate of stories showing how relatively cheap gas remains in the US. Here's a rough estimate of world prices per gallon, courtesy of CNN :

• US: $3.53
• Norway: $9.28
• Europe: Between $7.50 and $8 for most, including Britain, Ireland, Italy, France, and Germany.

Cable argues that kingdom can't pump enough crude to control prices

(NEWSER) - The world may be on the verge of an oil crisis, according to WikiLeaks cables released to the Guardian today. According to the cables, Sadad al-Husseini, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil monopoly, warned diplomats that Saudi reserves were overstated by almost 40%, and that the country couldn’t reach the 12.5 million barrel-per-day production capacity needed to keep global oil prices in check. He predicted that the world would hit “peak oil” as early as 2012. More»

Crude jumps 8% on violence, while OPEC waits for production cut to take hold

(NEWSER) - The price of oil jumped to $40 a barrel this morning, a gain of 8% over the previous session, as violence between Israel and Hamas threatened to destabilize crude supplies from the Middle East. Oil has been rising slightly after falling by more than $100 a barrel since July. The president of OPEC said this weekend he expected the price of oil to stabilize over the next two months as output cuts take hold. More»

Many fear disruption of Kurdish pipelines

(NEWSER) - Crude oil hit yet another record today, trading near $88 a barrel over fears that a looming Turkish attack on Northern Iraq would disrupt pipelines in the world’s third-largest oil producer. Turkey’s PM said he expected parliament to approve an incursion to root out PKK militants in the Kurdish region, through which Iraq ships most of its crude. More»