[Schmuto]

That's right folks, 65 dollar oil is now being called out for "hobbling" the "recovery."

The best quote?

The quote that really says, "it's all over except for the crying"?

The instability of oil and gas prices is puzzling government officials and policy analysts, who fear it could jeopardize a global recovery.

They're really and truly puzzled. At least that's the party line.

What nonsense.

How tough is it going to be over the next few years listening to all the fools around us buy into the "it's puzzling" or "it's speculators" or "it's evil people of a different religion" or it's "big oil gouging" ??

They fear it could "jeopardize" a "recovery."

The price of CL at which Schmuto now predicts the government will "do something" is now at 120.

When that happens - when the government "does something" - that's when you really need to worry.

10$ gasoline is much better than limited, government voucher gasoline on occasion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/busin ... ml?_r=1&hp

[WhatMeWorry]

I like this quote from the article.

"...as they try in vain to guess where prices will be a year from now — or even next month."

[copious.abundance]

This thread reminds me of this one here in which, after the Schmuto Index had already started to take effect, Schmuto comes along and boasts that the MSM is saying oil will never go below $100 ever again.



So, I guess if the MSM was right about oil never going below $100 ever again, they're also going to be right about volatile oil prices crippling the world economy.

[jasonraymondson]

Please, it wasn't 18 months ago that everyone on here was predicting 250 gas or more by this date. Of course nobody knows, it is like a big game of Russian roulette. But instead of 1 bullet in the revolver there are 7 and everyone is praying to get the empty chamber.

[Plantagenet]

....volatile oil prices crippling the world economy.

Oil isn't crippling the world economy.

Oil essentially IS the world economy.

[Sixstrings]

I'm getting a little tired of the TPTB going on about how "puzzled" they are. Biden said in an interview today something along the lines of "we underestimated the depth of the crisis we inherited." Uh, ok.

[jasonraymondson]

I'm getting a little tired of the TPTB going on about how "puzzled" they are. Biden said in an interview today something along the lines of "we underestimated the depth of the crisis we inherited." Uh, ok.

We have always known that those who seek out power are only obsessed with themselves and have no knowledge other than that of persuasion and bullshit.

The only elites in office are those of the power elite and not the intellectual technocracy that would better serve this country.

[TheDude]

Please, it wasn't 18 months ago that everyone on here was predicting 250 gas or more by this date. Of course nobody knows, it is like a big game of Russian roulette. But instead of 1 bullet in the revolver there are 7 and everyone is praying to get the empty chamber.

How many chambers are there in this gun, though?



A distinction should be made about how long a time frame this "volatility" is operating over, too. Day to day the price has become more volatile in the last decade:



Whereas on a secular scale the current price looks to be simply regaining a long term trend it was already following. The price spike around Aug '90, after the invasion of Kuwait, suggests to me that diurnal volatility is simply something to expect when the price exceeds a certain ratio of GDP, as Deffeyes charted out; or that with a larger price/bbl commensurately larger swings are to be expected.

Whiners. A 2009 average price still indicates a sharper decline than 1981: