Subject: Re: Trade deal with China reached
How many times would you care to roll that set of dice? Or, using a more direct analogy: How many spins of Russian Roulette do you want to take?

It's not Russian Roulette. In Russian Roulette, you die if you hit the wrong outcome. We didn't die when OPEC imposed the oil embargo. Nor was it just the oil embargo that prompted the massive shifts you describe - the rise in gasoline prices long after the Oil Weapon was fired, due to the existence of the cartel itself, played a huge role as well.

OPEC didn't "overplay their hand" - their hand just wasn't that strong. Because being the important supplier of a product like that gives you some economic power, and therefore some geopolitical influence, but only up to a point. So too with China.