We could see gas under $2 by Christmas

The last time Labor Day gas prices were this low, George W. Bush was in his first term as president. Prices have been going nowhere but down since June. And according to AAA, the average price of regular gasoline is now $2.40 per gallon — or more than $1 less than it was a year […]

Saudi Arabia Loses the Oil War

The oil war has finally reached its tipping point after 13 long months. This struggle between Saudi Arabia, and its much smaller North American adversaries has recently shifted as the application of innovative extraction technologies is now gaining the upper hand. The fiscal damage to national budgets is reaching a breaking point as surpluses have […]

Decline and Fall, John Michael Greer

“Greer’s work is nothing short of brilliant. Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post-Carbon Institute, and author, The Party’s Over and The End of Growth Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Although writing nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats could easily be describing the United States today. The […]

I eat, therefore I kill

“Why do we think we need to appropriate all of the world’s arable land to feed humans?“   Icelandic horses We are all what we think of as “individuals” in actuality living communities. Here in Iceland we have permaculture course participants from this country and Germany, the USA, Denmark, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, France, Norway, […]

The Economies Getting Hit by Low Oil Prices

Oil prices are still under $50 a barrel due to a glut in production and OPEC’s—the cartel of oil-producing countries—price war. Some say that the OPEC is winning: U.S. energy firms have been making cut-backs this summer due to losses from the low prices. It’s good news for U.S. consumers though: Labor Day gas prices […]

The Oil Price and EMEs growth in Credit and Petroleum Consumption since 2000

  In this post I present a closer look at the credit growth for 6 Emerging Market Economies (EME) together with the developments in their and the net oil exporters petroleum consumption for the period 2000 to 2014. The 6 EMEs are; Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Where did the lion’s share of growth […]

Nicole Foss Interview on Peak Oil, Financial Crisis, Resilience

The full interview with Nicole Foss of The Automatic Earth from the upcoming documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

Why the U.S. Gets the Most Out of Cheap Oil

Cheap oil should be good economic medicine for almost anybody who isn’t trying to sell the stuff. Yet only one country has been able to take full advantage of the 14-month collapse in the price of crude: the U.S. A big part of the reason was the success of the Federal Reserve at repairing the country’s […]

Russia Energy Minister: ‘Fair’ Oil Price Seen at $50-$70 a Barrel

The global oil market is set to stabilize by the year end, with oil prices seen hovering at what seems to be “fair levels” between $50 and $70 per barrel, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday. Speaking on state television channel Rossiya 24, Mr. Novak said oil prices won’t return to levels of $100 […]

Shell president: ‘Oil will be required for a long time’

The president of Shell Oil Co. said exploratory drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operations for a few days. And in an interview this week with The Associated Press Marvin Odum said he expects further protests against the company’s plans for Arctic […]

The oil price explosion is totally detached from reality

Oil prices are still massively higher than they were a week ago but Citi believes that the surge is pretty much devoid from reality. Crude oil rocketed nearly 30% in just three days, its biggest three-day rally in 25 years. Since Friday August 28, oil over 20% higher. Today, crude oil prices are initially ebbing off ever-so […]

Europe Oil Consumption Peaked in 2005

This is the 3rd article using data from the BP Statistical Review published in June 2015. Fig 1: Western Europe oil consumption, oil prices in $2014 Total oil consumption peaked 3 times at around 14 mb/d: (1)   In 1973, the 1st oil crisis which was triggered by the Yom Kippur war. The following OPEC embargo was […]

Peak Oil Ass-Backwards: Peak Oil, Meet Fractional-Reserve Banking

  If the ongoing crash of oil prices over the past  year – and now the stock market crashes of last week – have continuously taught me one thing, that would be that I’ve got very little clue regarding the economic implications of peak oil. To explain this I’ll have to take a circuitous, roundabout […]

There’s a New Oil Glut in Town

As crude oil continues to rip higher—it’s currently in the midst of its best three-day performance since January 2009—analysts at Barclays highlight one reason why this rally could prove to be short-lived. Resilience in U.S. shale production and supply increases from members of OPEC have left global oil markets in a prolonged state of surplus. Earlier in the year, this oil […]

Take advantage of cheaper oil and gas

Lower prices at the gasoline pump and in utility bills puts more money in everyone’s pocket, which boosts spending and the overall commerce. Considering the slow pace of America’s economic recovery, the market needs all the help it can get. The drop in the world price of oil is due to several factors related to […]

Kunstler: Say Goodbye to Normal

T he tremors rattling markets are not exactly what they seem to be. A meme prevails that these movements represent a kind of financial peristalsis — regular wavelike workings of eternal progress toward an epic more of everything, especially profits! You can forget the supposedly “normal” cycles of the techno-industrial arrangement, which means, in particular, […]

The high price of cheap oil

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web: “The oil industry, with its history of booms and busts, is in a new downturn,” said Clifford Krauss at The New York Times. The price of oil closed under $40 a barrel this week for the first time since 2009, a […]

America is the problem

Any more trading for butter? Closed. It was the mid 90s, but the CME floor was vibrant. There was a recent scandal where the FBI found nearly nothing by wearing wires and trading horribly in the currency pits. They were trying to bust independent traders by showing how they were manipulating the markets. It seemed […]

Forget oil glut and war. Water is real threat for Mideast

Thirst. It’s not talked about nearly as much as oil or Islamic State, yet lack of water is driving conflict and strife in the Middle East and North Africa. The World Resources Institute released this week a water-stress index measuring competition and depletion of surface water. It shows which countries are most vulnerable to scarcity […]

Oil skyrockets more than 10% in biggest one-day rally since 2009

Oil rocketed more than 10 per cent higher on Thursday, posting its biggest one-day rally in over six years, caught up in a relief rally that swept the globe as the U.S. economy grew more than predicted. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 10 per cent, the biggest gain since March 2009. U.S. gross domestic product […]

Humvee’s days are numbered, as US military announces new replacement

The days of the Humvee as the US Army’s vehicle of choice are about to come to an end, after the Department of Defense signed a $6.7 billion deal with the Oshkosh Corporation to provide a new vehicle with “far superior protection and off-road mobility.” The Wisconsin-based defense company beat off competition from a joint […]

Deflationary Collapse Ahead?

Both the stock market and oil prices have been plunging. Is this “just another cycle,” or is it something much worse? I think it is something much worse. Back in January, I wrote a post called Oil and the Economy: Where are We Headed in 2015-16? In it, I said that persistent very low prices could be a […]

Out in the Real World, Oil Market Is Much Better Than It Looks

The global oil market is healthier than it looks, signaling that crude’s plunge to six-year lows has probably gone too far. While futures tumbled below $45 a barrel in London for the first time since 2009, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered Plc say other measures suggest physical markets for crude have stabilized or even strengthened in […]

When The Crude Oil Runs Out

Mankind is using crude oil faster than Mother Nature can replenish it. What are the implications of that fact? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . […]

Robert Rapier: Why the $20 Oil Predictions are Wrong

As the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) retests the $40 per barrel (bbl) mark, some pundits are again calling for WTI to fall to $15 or $20/bbl. The same thing happened earlier in the year when crude prices tested $40. Lots of people predicted $20, the price went to $60, and the $20 crowd […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: A $4 Trillion Hole

Last week reporters at the Wall Street Journal sat down and did some arithmetic. They looked at how much oil was selling for in the spring of 2014 (over $100 a barrel); looked at what it is selling for today (under $50); and concluded that if prices stay low for the next three years, the […]

Why oil prices could sink to $15 a barrel

American drivers could soon be partying like it’s 1999. Oil prices have already taken a dramatic fall that’s saved consumers big time at the pump. Last week, crude tumbled below $42 a barrel, down from $100 last year. One big-name investor is predicting an even sharper drop. “There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest we have bottomed. […]

$10 Oil Up Ahead?

Oil prices hit their 2009 lowest this outgoing week, as the market is badly shaken by the renminbi’s devaluation in China, and the non-stop increase in pumping in both OPEC and North America. Kristian Rouz — Global crude prices dropped to their 6-year lows during past three months, although summer is traditionally a peak season on the demand side […]

What is the price of oil telling us?

Market fundamentalists tell us that prices convey information. Yet, while our barbers and hairdressers might be able to give us an extended account of why their prices have changed in the last few years, commodities such as oil–which reached a six-year low last week–stand mute. To fill that silence, many people are only too eager […]

Kunstler: True Believers

There is a special species of idiot at large in the financial media space who believe absolutely in the desperate and tragic public relations bullshit that this society churns out to convince itself that the techno-industrial high life can continue indefinitely, despite the mandates of reality — in particular, the fairy tales about oil: we’re […]

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