Cannibals, Cassandra and Oil Costing $200: Is a Crisis Brewing?

Why is Stephen Leeb, who manages $160 million for Leeb Capital Management, comparing himself to Cassandra and Jimmy Carter?

Both of them predicted disaster, one for Troy if it messed with the big horse, and one for the U.S. if it didn’t wean itself off foreign oil. Leeb also has a vision.

He foresees an energy crisis that could spell the end of modern civilization — though presumably not before he sells lots of copies of his latest book, “The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel” (Warner, 211 pages, $24.95).

No stranger to skepticism, Leeb is perhaps best known for his prediction in “The Oil Factor” (2004) that oil would reach $100 a barrel by the end of the decade. Now, citing worsening fundamentals, he predicts oil will top $200 a barrel and touch off hyperinflation, double-digit interest rates and a cascading collapse of the world economy. His book, written with Glen Strathy, tries to be both a call to arms against a looming oil shock and a primer on how investors can protect themselves.

Bloomberg