To watch video and for a better download click word button in next line:
 Bremmer: Technology isn't the end of work—it's the end of oil

Bremmer: Technology isn't the end of work—it's the end of oil

 

By Seana Smith 21 hours ago

 

More

Technology is not the end of work—technology is the end of oil, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer told Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Bremmer, who warns that oil prices will be lower for longer, says that the “the fourth industrial revolution,” which is the theme of the 46^th annual meeting, is actually hitting the Middle East right now.

“Labor is not what they have. What they have is stuff that they take out of the ground which is worth a lot of money,” said Bremmer. “Suddenly IT has come along and said you can’t do this anymore. They’re not prepared. They haven’t diversified.”

Saudi Arabia, the leading producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has kept production high even as prices sink to multi-year lows.

“Everything that could go badly for the Saudis, is going badly for the Saudis,” said Bremmer. “One of the most important members of the Saudi delegation is extremely concerned, not just about energy prices but [about] their ability geopolitically to get through all of this.”

Plummeting oil prices, now in their 19th month, are putting more pressure on the Middle East as crude trades near its lowest level since May 2003. Bremmer notes that the shale revolution in the U.S. has been the catalyst for U.S. oil production soaring to more than 9 million barrels currently.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2020 more than four-fifths of the oil consumed in the U.S. will come from the Western Hemisphere.