phillips49

Oil Bubble Continues Its Burst

Seems to me that it doesn't take much to cause price changes one way or the other when supply and demand are roughly in balance.

If the sole criteria for declaring and bubble is price decline, then every asset class was in a bubble. I don't seem to recall any prescient bubble callers on all asset classes. The last time I looked gold was off 27%, platinum 57%, copper off 50%, stocks off 40%.

I think supply/demand arguements are still valid for all asset classes.

It is my hope that the USA will use the relief on oil and gas prices to develop and implement plans to liberate us from foreign sources of energy. A world power can not remain a world power as long as it is dependant on foreign countries for it's energy. This is a national security issue that must be resolved before we export all of our remaining wealth. As it stands now, if we make someone out there mad, we're walking to work, if work is still open.

Oil Price Speculation Truth Begins to Leak into Mainstream Media

Absent credible facts and data, this article is SPECULATION.

Oil Bubble Spin

Like the author, I don't know if oil is a bubble or not.

I do know that the dot com bubble was based on get rich quick speculation over intangible un-necessary assets with no base.

I do know that the housing bubble was based on tangible but optional assets bid up on low interest borrowed money.

I do know that oil is a tangible asset that is not optional in an modern industrailized growing world.

I do know there is wide disagreement about peaking and world capacity and the political and geological effects on price.

I do know there would be no debate over depletion or peaking if there was abundant over supply.

I do know that the world is using 30 billion barrels of oil a year and that there are major obstacles to overcome to sustain or grow that amount over the long haul.

I do know that supply/demand whether structural or political is effecting price.

I do know that the cost of replacing depleted fields is increasing.

I do know that modern transportation is based on liquid fuel and that the global infrastructure supports liquid fuel for the transportation system.

I do know that there is no economically available substitue for the liquid fuel that we use or have infrastructure to support the fleet.

My conclusion from what I do know is that the price of oil will continue to increase following the laws of supply and demand until the cost forces a reduction in demand, but thereafter will remain at a high price for those that still afford to buy it.

Oil Manipulations Exposed

correction -it was Abe Lincoln that said "you can fool......." not Mark Twain

Oil Manipulations Exposed

Good article! I sure wish it was as easy as the author presents. We could just send in the oil Gustapo and fix it! Arrest them all, sue them all. Gas would drop back to $2.50/gallon and everyone would go back to sleep!

I rather suspect that it is a little more complex than that though. It is hard to hide a fraud of this magnitude from the entire world. Was it Mark Twain that said "you can fool some of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time"

I'm sure there is some churning and manipulation. However the fundamental truth is that if supply exceeded demand, prices could not be manipulated. A supply/demand issue is the root cause. Our dependance on foreign oil will be the ruin of us. I'm not an oil apologist, I'm a realist. We need to reduce our presence in the global energy market competition. We need to pump our own oil, use our own coal, use our own natural gas, put up wind farms, put up nuclear power plants, and transition our mobile fleet over to the most energy efficient possible.