Peak_a_Boo asked,
"What would have happened if the price had hovered at this level throughout 2008 and to the present? Catastrophe?"

Let me ask, what happpened when oil didn't hover at that price? Catastrophe? Gee if oil prices had stayed high we may have had major bank failures, or the Dow Jones might have went to 6500, or governments have had to hurl money at the problems around the world...oh wait...that already happened anyway. Gee, I'm glad things didn't get ugly...:-)

RC

it\s a chicken egg sort of deal. Did the oil price and economy tank because of this margin call malacky that evaporated investment cash or did the inability to expand oil and gas production bottleneck the ability to create wealth to pay the interest?