The world of energy, which is to say the course of the world economy, has been turned upside-down with the fracking revolution.  Less glamorous than information technology, perhaps, but the extraction of the formerly inaccessible reserves embedded in shale is having a profound effect on the world’s political economy, and in particular on the United States’ pre-eminence, strategically and economically. Nothing could better symbolize the change than the revelation that the United States is now calculated to have more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia.  Ronald Bailey of Reason caught the news: The Rystad Energy consultancy has just released its new calculations of global oil reserves and estimates that the U.S. may harbor as much 264 billion barrels of oil compared to Saudi Arabia's 212 billion barrels. Overall, world oil reserves exceed 2 trillion barrels. At current production rates, this is enough oil to supply the world for 70 years. The Rystad...(Read Full Post)