Demand and Economics, or are we mushrooms?

Given the discussion over at Econbrowser, and his apparent demand (as in command) that you can’t use the word demand (as in need) without defining that in terms of price (and the post has 203 comments attached in an interesting discussion) my eye was caught by the following quote from this Reuters article…

Oil prices raced to record highs above $67 a barrel on Friday as investors fretted over the world’s strained capacity to refine and pump crude oil.

U.S. oil rose more than 7 percent this week and has climbed 51 percent since the start of the year. The stage could be set for further gains, with no let-up seen in global demand growth and no signs that $60-plus oil is harming the economy of the world’s largest consumer, the United States.

Now what this says to me is that at current prices demand is not being controlled by price. Which would contradict Econbrowser’s point, and perhaps suggest that the Hirsch Report was correct in writing the document the way it did?

A lot more economics and other stuff after the jump at The Oil Drum.