Emma Ashford
Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World
By Leif Wenar
Oxford University Press, 2015, $27, 552 pages
The oil magnate J. Paul Getty once described his formula for success: “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” He could not have been more wrong when it comes to states with substantial endowments of natural resources. Too often the result of Getty’s prescription is not success but disaster: repressive autocracies, weak economies, corruption, violence, and war. The severity of these problems varies widely, from the repressive yet prosperous states of the Persian Gulf, to conflict-ridden states like Nigeria or Liberia, to …read more
Source: Cato Institute