How Bad Could the Iran Oil Crisis Get?

About this episode

Jason Bordoff discusses the implications of the Iran oil crisis on the global economy and U.S. strategy.

Iran has currently shut off more than 10 percent of the world’s oil supply. If that goes on for a lot longer — or if the war escalates to include more strikes on energy infrastructure in the region — the price of oil could go through the roof, and the damage to the global economy could be catastrophic. So what would that look like? What tools does the United States have to avert it? And how is this crisis already reverberating in countries around the world? Jason Bordoff is the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a founding dean of the Columbia Climate School. He served as a special assistant to President Barack Obama and senior director for energy and climate change on the National Security Council. In this conversation, Bordoff answers all my questions about the crisis so far and how things could spin out from here, the strategic positioning of the United States, Europe, Iran, Russia and China, the developing countries likely to suffer the most and the lessons the world might take from this. Mentioned: “Making the U.S. More Resilient to Oil Price Shocks” by Jason Bordoff and Spencer Dale “The Return of the Energy Weapon” by Jason…

People in this episode

Host: Ezra Klein

Guest: Jason Bordoff

Topics covered

• Iran oil crisis
• global economy
• energy infrastructure
• U.S. strategy
• international relations
• oil supply

Keywords

• Iran
• oil supply
• global economy
• energy crisis
• U.S. strategy
• international relations
• Barack Obama

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, Columbia Climate School, National Security Council

Books & works: Making the U.S. More Resilient to Oil Price Shocks, The Return of the Energy Weapon, Material World, More and More and More, Deliver Me from Nowhere

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