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Comment by ur-whale | Hacker News Reader

>it costs them a lot of money

Which they happen to sit on a bottomless pit of.

In their own words, "the stone age didn't end due to a lack of stone". The world will move on from oil, and they'll be left behind.

Their wealth is overrated - they run huge deficits and the writing is on the wall for ARAMCO

They've invested such huge amounts of money that they might be relevant for a long time?

But they might kill (pun intended) that too.

Didn't MBS punish and bring back the head of their fund? I can't find his name quickly if someone else knows the facts - I remember reading an article about him being western in dress & manner, being openly critical as a family member can be. It might be Amr al-Dabbagh?

Was successfully growing their money and power until he was 'Ritz-Carlton-ed'

Very happy to hear this and hope that is indeed the case, but the world's thirst for oil is still huge and will take a long time before it's finally quenched.

Also, these days, running huge, never-to-be-repaid debt seems to be the standard way to run a country, as exemplified by the US and most of the EU ... the other shoe seems to have a gravity belt, so ARAMCO might just be safe for a long time.

Never to be repaid debt only works if the market thinks the country will continue produce something worth buying. That’s why Somalia can’t print its way out of poverty. Once Saudi Arabia runs out of oil, I’m not sure the country produces anything of equivalent value.

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