dlaw

Oil Datapoints of the Day

Important commentary and thanks so much for pointing out the article.

I would put a slightly different spin on the problem: These oil numbers point out that the world has still not come up with a generalized capital markets approach that works in fact, rather than in theory.

I think what we're seeing is that there's an artificial barrier between the nation-state and the capital markets. The answer is not, as some anarcho-capitalists would suggest, to destroy the nation state. Neither is it to destroy the capital markets.

The answer is to find an accommodation between the two institutions and create institutions that operate at a new level.

The key is for people not to forget no resource can find value absent economic flow and activity. The oil-rich countries are islands, in a sense, but if they come to believe that floating on a sea of petroleum and floating on a sea of petro-dollars is the same thing, they are doomed. Dollars (euros, yen) represent collective effort. Oil is just another useful mineral, like uranium.

How these things are employed is the most important question.