James Hamilton

Latest articles from James

• What Happens if Iran Doesn't Back Down?

  Published 05 April 2012 | viewed 9,089 times

  If an embargo is successful in preventing Iran from selling a significant amount of oil on the world market, what would replace it? On Friday…

• Prices of WTI and Brent Should Realign with a Gulf Coast Pipeline

  Published 23 February 2012 | viewed 19,908 times

  The Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project is now entering its fourth year of regulatory review, and is currently on indefinite political hold. In the meantime,…

• What do the Recent Oil Price Highs Mean for Consumers at the Pump

  Published 22 February 2012 | viewed 7,985 times

  Crude oil prices this week reached their highest level since last April. What will that mean for U.S. consumers at the gas pump? The first…

• How to Become Rich: Buy Low and Sell High

  Published 23 January 2012 | viewed 19,410 times

  It's a strategy that works for individuals, and can work for the entire nation as well. If you can figure out a way to find…

• Possible Implications of the Iranian Oil Embargo

  Published 16 January 2012 | viewed 10,277 times

  As efforts continue to impose sanctions on Iran, I thought it would be helpful to discuss the possible implications of these developments for oil-consuming countries.…

• Reducing Petroleum Consumption from Transportation

  Published 12 January 2012 | viewed 5,979 times

  MIT Professor Christopher Knittel has a new paper on the potential for the United States to reduce petroleum consumption. From the paper's abstract: The United…

• U.S. Net Exporter of Petroleum Products - A Look at the Numbers

  Published 29 December 2011 | viewed 9,063 times

  One big story of 2011 was the United States switched from being a net importer to a net exporter of petroleum products. Here are the…

• Implications of the Recent Rise in Oil Prices

  Published 22 November 2011 | viewed 7,182 times

  The price of West Texas Intermediate has risen almost $10 a barrel since the start of September, and briefly bumped back above $100 a barrel…

• Peak Production for U.S. Oil-Producing Regions

  Published 21 October 2011 | viewed 19,956 times

  I've just finished a new paper on Oil prices, exhaustible resources, and economic growth (click here for paper), which explores details behind the phenomenal increase…

• Changing Behavior of Crude Oil Futures Prices

  Published 22 September 2011 | viewed 10,753 times

  I've just finished a new research paper with my former student (and now University of Chicago Professor) Cynthia Wu. In our new paper, we study…

• Fundamentals, Speculation, and Oil Prices

  Published 30 August 2011 | viewed 13,113 times

  I was in Washington DC last week, arriving right after the earthquake and getting out of town just before Irene, to attend a conference on…

• Index Funds and Commodity Prices

  Published 09 August 2011 | viewed 8,587 times

  There has been a lot of growth over the last decade in funds that take long positions in commodity futures contracts in order to offer…

• Rapidly Increasing Chinese Oil Demand

  Published 14 June 2011 | viewed 6,460 times

  Stuart Staniford notes that the number of trucks and passenger vehicles in China has been growing at about 23% each year.Vehicle growth rates for U.S.…

• Just How Significant is the OPEC Announcement?

  Published 10 June 2011 | viewed 7,174 times

  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)  announced on Tuesday that its members could not reach an agreement to change OPEC's production quotas. How significant…

• Oil Price Manipulation

  Published 28 May 2011 | viewed 7,529 times

  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday filed a civil enforcement action alleging that Nicholas Wildgoose and James Dyer, who worked as traders for Arcadia…

• A Look at the Environmental Concerns Surrounding Shale Gas

  Published 18 May 2011 | viewed 5,324 times

  Technological breakthroughs in methods for drilling for natural gas have opened up the possibility of vast new supplies. However, environmental concerns may turn out to…

• Oil prices and trading mechanics

  Published 11 May 2011 | viewed 5,040 times

  A report from Reuters attributes the wild commodity price moves last week to algorithmic stop-loss trading. Jim Brown offered these details on the oil trading:…

• Lower Oil Prices

  Published 09 May 2011 | viewed 12,242 times

  Like a roller coaster ride, 2011 saw oil prices climb gradually, only to fall dramatically this last week. Here I offer my thoughts on some…

• Differences in the Price of Oil: Brent-WTI Spread

  Published 19 April 2011 | viewed 12,236 times

  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…

• Natural Gas Now a Growing Alternative to Gasoline

  Published 07 April 2011 | viewed 5,885 times

  The Denver Post reported the opening on Saturday of stations offering compressed natural gas to drivers in Grand Junction and Rifle, towns along Interstate 70…