fast getting depleted. then there s the tourism industry which employs 2 million people but is sitting idle with the world continuing to shun the pyramids and cruises down the nile. that s $1 billion of lost revenue every month. growth has crawled to a standstill. meanwhile, tens of thousands of workers emboldened with a new sense of freedom are staging strikes to demand better pay. confronting them would mean work stoppages. appeasing them would cost money. and the state s coffers airport aren t exactly overflowing. then there s oil. the revolutions of the middle east have sparked a cycle of pain in the crude markets. look at three countries that have been hit hardest by people power movements egypt, tunisia, syria. they are all oil importers. egypt then will go from growth in 2010 to shrinking gdps this year. now, look at the neighbors who managed to stave off the wave of protests through a mix of bribery and appeasement. qatar, saudi arabia, kuwait.
and finally, the two top presidential candidates in egypt, two former office mates now rivals. let me first give you some of my own thoughts, having spent some time in cairo and actually listened to president obama s speech from here in tahrir square. the president s speech was remarkably comprehensive. it described the events that we now call the arab spring, explain their causes and consequences. he placed the united states squarely behind the democratic wave everywhere. though he didn t specifically mention one country. saudi arabia. the place where america s interests and values most obviously clash. i don t blame him. street protests in saudi arabia might warm our hearts, but they could easily lead to $250 a barrel oil and a global recession. that s a tough one. obama outlined specific policies to help the arab revolutions get consolidated. all good stuff. and he also talked about the need for a resolution of the israeli/palestinian conflict. with two states based on 1