The argument that Tyler Cowen is trying to make in his piece at Bloomberg:
Following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, there have been many calls for reexamining the U.S.-Saudi relationship, even for imposing sanctions. As an economist, I understand there are diplomatic fine points to this relationship that lie beyond my expertise, but still: It is worth reviewing the economic and exchange-based reasons why U.S.-Saudi relations have been so robust.
First, trade between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is currently about $24 billion per year. You might think that the U.S. is now energy-independent, but many U.S. allies, most notably Japan, rely on oil imports. Part of the larger U.S. foreign policy stance is promising those allies freedom from major supply disruptions.
appears to be that the relationship between the U. S. and Saudi Arabia is a commensal one. I don’t think he succeeds but I do give him credit for articulating a different argument pretty well. The U. S. is afflicted by many parasites and the parasites have a commensal relationship with one another.
My conclusion from that is not only do we need to revisit our alliances we need to start making more demands of our presumed allies.
BTW $24 billion is on the order of .1% of GDP. Our economy grows more than that in a month.
