Righting a free oil market

By many accounts, these are the days of resource nationalism. China tries to control exports of its rare earth minerals. The United States restricts certain exports of advanced computer chips. Even a few West African countries that dominate cocoa production often collude to control prices for the world’s chocolate-makers.Yet history teaches that a zero-sum mentality of resource manipulation or price-fixing among rivals often ends up pushing consumers to find creative ways to adjust. Cartels or monopolies then crack apart. The natural state of free competition in a market returns. And the notion that one can only get ahead if somebody else loses starts to recede.A good example of how mercantilism can melt away could be happening now. On Tuesday, one of the world’s top oil producers, the United Arab Emirates, announced it is quitting OPEC, along with the cartel’s stringent quota system among member states to rig global petroleum prices. The UAE, which produces about 12% of OPEC’s oil, said it would now align its prime export “with demand and market conditions.”The Gulf Arab nation has other reasons to exit. A fellow OPEC member, Iran, has bombed the UAE more than it has Israel during the recent war. Saudi Arabia,