Oil prices have effectively erased…
Not only is it a…
Who says miracles can’t happen? After four straight days of steady decline, crude oil prices finally plummeted by nearly 9 percent on Thursday to US$99.80 a barrel – the first…
If you read many of the pieces I write here you will soon notice that I am convinced that this country, and most of the civilized world, has a problem…
Rising oil prices usually promote a negative reaction from most people. While there are definite disadvantages to high oil prices, there are some indirect effects that aren’t necessarily good or…
Goldman Sachs surprised the market when the investment bank advised its clients on Monday, April 11 to liquidate the "CCCP basket" for a 25% profit. The bear call was partly…
One of my recent essays discussed the relationship between high oil prices and recession. Consumers who suddenly find themselves paying more for fuel are hit with the equivalent of…
The puzzling differential between the price of oil in different markets seems to be persisting. For most of the last decade, there was very little difference between the price of…
The reasons for oil to keep rising are well known--perhaps too well known. Let's look at some charts to illustrate the swirling currents in the global oil market. Why do…
Not all commentators are convinced the speed of oil price rises or the heights to which they have risen are purely down to fundamentals. Since 2003 the value of the…
At a press conference on March 11, President Obama indicated that a plan was 'teed up', and that he would move quickly to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), if…
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recently warned that the U.S. is likely headed back into recession: The Economic Truth That Nobody Will Admit: We’re Heading Back Toward a…
The oil price has been relentlessly rising, widely seen as being driven by a mix of fundamentals such as Asian demand exceeding supply, and fear of supply disruption caused in…
Political tensions in the Middle East once again remind us of the fragile dependency of the Western nations on imported petroleum, which have driven the price of a barrel of…
Good article on corn this morning by Smart Money Europe (Zero Hedge link). The bottom line is that corn is sitting at a two year high. Reading SME you…
The United States Oil Fund (USO), and exchange traded fund (ETF) tracking the performance of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil futures contract, starts its 4-day position rolling on Tuesday,…
High grade crude for gulf delivery hit the highest price since the spring of 2008 this morning. This is the raw material for gasoline, so look for another big spike…
For the US, the huge and growing alternative to crude oil is Canada's oil sands. New mines and refineries are being installed in Canada, and new pipelines are being built…
Crude oil prices have been seesawing between the news coming out of Libya and rising inventories in the U.S. Crude oil stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma rose to a record 41.9…
Inflation rates are rising in the world's major economies. The consumer price index rose by half a percent in the United States in February, equivalent to an annual rate of…
I want to bring to the attention of readers a recent paper by James Hamilton, called Historical Oil Shocks (also here as a National Bureau of Economic Research…
As the European Central Bank (ECB) prepares to raise interest rates to prevent inflation, the bank cites rising commodity prices, particularly oil prices, as a sign of that inflation. What…