Jerome's excellent article is another good reason never to miss TOD. One caveat, though:

This [the fact that a small local conflict can have a global impact - CO] is both a sign of our increased vulnerability to a tight oil supply/demand balance, and possibly a sign of hope that the balance of power between financiers and the rest of the world is finally changing as reality (and in particular physical and human bottlenecks) reasserts itself against the mad rush for short term profit.

I'm not sure about the 'sign of hope' and whether reality will prevail over the 'mad rush for short-term profit'. The 'mad rush' (in non-judgemental terms: human nature in action) might even get madder – if not with an eye to short term profits, then in the hope of cutting one's losses. The situation is so disastrous that most investors would be quite happy just to break even. And I don't think Jerome's tone of moral indignation will move the ball down the field. Moral indignation, even when justified, tends to cloud judgement and foster a good-guy bad-guy approach to the human predicament. Do I detect a sense of glee that 'reality' will drag down the financiers and 'corporate shrills' along with the rest of us?

After all, what are the striking workers' aspirations but to max out and, if necessary, let the devil take the hindmost? When it comes to being 'shrills', trade unions are well able to match the other side of industry. In my view they are neither more deserving, nor less deserving, than their employer. No doubt most of us would do the same in their position. I wish them luck but remember that if they win, others will lose. Not just the fat cats and managers, but also the future beneficiaries of pension funds that have invested in the Grangemouth company. We are entering the age of zero-sum games and so not all will have prizes.