Oiling the downturn . . .

Not that I'm really into the commodities market, but I heard over the weekend (don't ask*) that the price of a barrel of crude oil was trading under $42. This summer it was over $125.

Even with the economic slowdown, do you figure that the world is using a third of the oil it was a few months ago????

Yeah, I know about how pricing and futures work, extremes at the margins and all that jazz, but here's the point - economists and other experts claimed that the huge price increases over the past year were all demand-driven. That's clearly bs - speculation then, and speculation now, are huge factors in the pricing. The current price makes that very clear - so when are they going to admit it?

The irony is that the huge increase in oil prices played a major role in pushing the car companies to the brink and deepening or maybe accelerating the recession, which had already started. But its role has been overlooked.

* Hey, it wasn't that bad. I enjoyed the eggnog.