Saudi America, Bethany McLean
Saudi America, Bethany McLean
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Saudi America
The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World

Author: Bethany McLean

Narrator: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Unabridged: 3 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/11/2018


Synopsis

Bestselling author Bethany McLean reveals the true story of fracking's impact -- on Wall Street, the economy and geopolitics.

The technology of fracking in shale rock -- particularly in the Permian Basin in Texas -- has transformed America into the world's top producer of both oil and natural gas. The U.S. is expected to be "energy independent" and a "net exporter" in less than a decade, a move that will upend global politics, destabilize Saudi Arabia, crush Russia's chokehold over Europe, and finally bolster American power again.

Or Will it?

Investigative journalist and bestselling author Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that has plagued the American oil industry for the past decade, from the financial wizardry and mysterious death of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon, to the speculators who are betting on America's ascendance and the collapse of OPEC in the great game of geopolitics. McLean finds that fracking is a business built on attracting ever-more gigantic amounts of capital investment, while promises of huge returns have often not borne out. Overeagerness in partaking in a boom can lead to all types of problems and just as she did with the Enron story, in Saudi America McLean points out the reality and the risks of the inflated promises of the fracking boom.

About The Author

BETHANY MCLEAN is the co-author of the bestseller The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron with Peter Elkind. Her second book, which she co-authored with Joe Nocera, is All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. Her most recent book is Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants. She is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and lives in Chicago.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Charles on November 16, 2018

Bethany McLean writes clearly about finance, markets, the technology of fracking, and the foibles of human nature. This is a very compact book of 130 pages that, at least as a snapshot in 2018, will educate the reader about the US fossil fuel market and the place of fracking in America’s energy and......more

Goodreads review by Jean Huber on September 10, 2018

So let’s take a minute to talk about a publisher that is putting out tiny little books on BIG TOPICS. I would like to introduce you to Columbia Global Reports, and what they are doing is making complicated real world issues accessible to everyone by publishing information in novella sized books. The......more

Goodreads review by Venky on December 26, 2019

Oil is one ubiquitous commodity whose nips and tugs influence not only the global economy but also sways the geo political environment across continents. The price of oil can either quell the rising tide of uncertainty or produce tidal waves of frightening ramifications. This double edged paradox su......more

Goodreads review by Tirath on January 24, 2019

A good primer on whats been happening with the fracking boom bust and boom. Most of the matter has already been covered in other books; but the author compiles it well. - Low interest rate regime helped the boom - Pricing for Oil and gas has always been super murky - The breakeven point for fracking ops......more

Goodreads review by Jean on July 02, 2019

Columbia Global Reports (a publishing division from Columbia University) commissioned Bethany McLean (Co-author of Enron: ‘The Smartest Guys in the Room’) to write on fracking from a financial perspective. The resulting 131 pages offers new ways to understand the world that can be read in less than......more