If you frequent these pages, you're probably well aware that the Saudis are in trouble. 

Exactly a year ago, Riyadh decided to embark on an epic quest to send crude prices plunging on the way to, i) bankrupting the US shale complex and ii) achieving "ancillary diplomatic benefits," like tightening the screws on Moscow's energy-dependent economy in hopes of forcing Putin to give up Assad. 

Long story short, the kingdom's plan didn't work. 

Thanks to ZIRP, legions of yield-starved investors in the US ensured that capital markets remained open to otherwise insolvent drillers, allowing US producers to stay in business longer than the Saudis anticipated. Meanwhile, not only did Putin not give up Assad, he actually sent the Russian air force to Latakia and to add insult to injury, Moscow's warplanes are now bombing Saudi-financed Sunni militias in Syria. 

Meanwhile, slumping crude prices wreaked havoc on the kingdom's finances. As we've documented extensively, the Saudis are now staring down a deficit on both the fiscal and current accounts with the former amounting to some 20% of GDP and the latter representing the first negative balance in at least 15 years.