Is OPEC A U.S. National Security Threat?

Republican Kevin Cramer from North Dakota is cosponsoring a bipartisan bill that will set up a commission to probe whether OPEC has used unfair means to bolster its dominance over the market and propose possible remedies on the grounds that the matter is important from a national security standpoint, reports the Financial Times.
Though similar efforts in the past against OPEC have been ineffective, another cosponsor, Republican Trent Franks, is optimistic about the outcome this time around.
‘If our bill does nothing more than to raise this question on to the agendas of business leaders and policymakers’.’.’.’it will have achieved something,’ he said.
The move holds significance due to the forthcoming Presidential elections, a flurry of U. S. shale bankruptcies, the growing closeness between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and souring relations between the U. S. and Saudi Arabia.
Recently, Saudi Arabia threatened to dump $750 billion of U. S. treasury securities and other American assets if the U. S. passed a bill allowing the family members of those killed in the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia in U. S. courts. Nonetheless, the threat was unfounded as Saudi Arabia only holds $116.8 billion, and the OPEC nations combined hold $281 billion in U. S. treasuries as of February 2016, reportsBloomberg.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 05/24/2016.