Saudi Royal Family

Kerry's repeating that line in his stump speech. It's odd that such a line has become controversial. The reason one doesn't want to depend on Saudi Oil is the same reason one doesn't want to depend on the bond-buying activities of the Chinese government. It 's simple -- both of these entities have a big influence on the world economy, and both entities face considerable non-purely-economic incentives which will affect how much oil they pump, and how much they're willing to buy T-Bills. And, in both of those cases there are plenty of reasons to believe that there could easily come a time when the political interests of China/Saudi diverge sufficiently from ours, and both entities, at least over the short/medium term, have the power to wreak havoc on our economies.