Imagine a day - not long from now - when Mexico, America's No. 2 oil supplier, cuts off its oil to the United States. 15.4% of U.S. imports, simply gone.
As bad as that is for the U.S. economy, it's even worse for Mexico - with millions of Mexican jobs lost forever.
Then imagine Mexico torn apart by vicious turf wars over its other precious export commodity - illegal drugs.
Thousands of people die as rival gangs turn entire neighborhoods into battle zones. Mexican families literally run for their lives, fleeing their homes, never to return.
Imagine Mexico further torn apart as the loser of the presidential election refuses to concede ...even "appointing" his own "cabinet" - and commanding the loyalty of millions of his countrymen, months after the election was decided. Mexicans panicked by the prospect of civil war look around for a refuge.
And then...Imagine all of these crises driving millions of Mexicans to sneak into the United States illegally - overwhelming the numbers already arriving.
And waiting for them at the border - thousands of self-styled militia determined to keep them out at all costs.
One day soon, we won't have to imagine. Some of this is reality already, even if it's not front-page news. And the rest of it is shaping up to be reality very soon.
Now let me be clear...Mexican President Felipe Calderon won't actually cut off oil to the United States.
But he might as well...because the day is coming when Mexico will simply run out of oil to export.
This will absolutely crater Mexico's economy, driving tens of thousands of desperate people to the U.S. border.
Calderon knows all of this...He just won't say so.
In the next few minutes, you'll learn exactly why this series of dominoes has started to fall. Then, you'll learn how Calderon is just one member of a whole Rogues' Gallery of world leaders scrambling for dwindling oil supplies, setting in motion a New Energy Crisis.
Some, like Calderon, pose as American allies. Others are already sworn enemies. But all of them are bent on achieving energy security...and they're about to light a match to volatile tinderbox regions around the world - even America's own backyard!
As alarming as the New Energy Crisis is shaping up to be, I also want you to know there are six steps you can take right now to protect your wealth...even grow your wealth ...during these turbulent times just around the corner. I'll walk you through these steps, to a place of safety, after you learn about the havoc these Rogues are wreaking.
We'll start with the Rogue whose actions hit closest to home.
Rogue on America's Doorstep: Mexico's Felipe Calderon
Top aides to President Bush held their breath all last summer as an election drama played out in Mexico, a lot like the disputed 2000 election here in America. By early September, Mexico's court system handed the election to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon, and the Bush team finally exhaled. After all, Mexico is America's second largest source of oil imports, after Canada.
But the Bush team is about to get the wind knocked out of them.
Because Mexico is running out of oil.
At the current rate it's pumping oil, Mexico has only 10 years of proven reserves left. The Cantarell oil field in the Gulf of Mexico - the world's second largest - was generating 2.1 million barrels per day last spring. By summer, that had fallen to 1.74 million barrels. And the Mexican government forecasts a fall to as little as 520,000 barrels per day by 2008.
Let me put those numbers to you another way.
Mexico: Running on Empty!
"At current extraction rates, [Mexico] has only 10 years of proven oil reserves remaining."
- San Francisco Chronicle
For every four barrels Cantarell was generating a few months ago, there might be only one barrel coming out a little over a year from now.
No wonder one expert says, "The situation is probably much graver than the government would like us to think it is."
By one estimate, the sudden decline of Cantarell means Mexico's oil exports to the United States could fall from the current 1.5 million barrels a day to a mere half million. That's the optimistic estimate. The pessimistic one is that Mexico stops exporting oil completely.
What in the world is Calderon going to do? Unlike the Iranians and the Russians, he hopes to boost his nation's crude exports by opening Mexico's oil industry to foreign oil corporations. But even he's given up on the idea of his predecessor, Vicente Fox, to completely privatize Mexico's oil industry - what the Bush administration was counting on to really get the Mexican oil flowing. And that still doesn't address the issue of what happens when the wells start to run dry.
The End of Mexican
Oil Exports
"Cantarell's production will drop swiftly in the next two or three years, probably to the point that Mexico won't be able to export oil."
PEMEX, the giant state-owned oil company, is counting on new wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and in Veracruz state. But it could take a decade of exploration and development before serious production begins - and that's assuming PEMEX's optimistic estimates about what lies in those fields actually pan out. That's a huge assumption. Also, there's the assumption that PEMEX has the resources to do the necessary exploration. PEMEX has to give up a third of its revenue to the Mexican government every year, and the company is saddled with $100 billion of debt.
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