The Oil Drum | Straining To Keep Up

21 comments on Straining To Keep Up

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Dan Ur on October 22, 2005 - 5:35pm

Me thinks they lost it in an accounting error!

Maybe Matt Simmons and our other favorite Oil Prophets might be right after all, and the media is just covering someone's backside.

As has been stated by others, there seems to be a real disconnect out there in mom and pop land. Christmas is coming, the stores are filled with all the toys and gagets for folks to buy. Why worry about lost oil? Prices have gone down didn't you see? No worries spend it, no need to conserve, why worry hurricane season is almost over with, and all that other no worry be happy end of another great year in retail.

PS, Even before Katrina I drove less than 10 miles a week, Down from 100's of miles a week. But when I am out I don't see any reductions at all in the other folk's driving habits and they continue to build bigger better roads.

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GreyZone on October 22, 2005 - 8:34pm

Most people rely on price signals to tell them to change behaviors because price signals, in a market that is freely exchanging accurate information, should theoretically encapsulate the expert knowledge about that commodity. The current price signals are not telling people to alter their behavior and they have not realized that they need to educate themselves directly on this issue.

Further, we also know the oil price market is manipulated for political objectives (to "stablize" the economy rather than let real decisions based on real data to play out properly), and further, we know that many producers have falsified data to various extents.

The net result is that the market is acting on false information and thus reaching bad conclusions. This is GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out - so people keep right on driving unaware of the storm brewing just beyond their horizons.

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21 comments on Straining To Keep Up

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