Peak oil and investing

Q: What is your take on some recent warnings about a coming economic crisis due to the price of oil?

Billionaire Richard Rainwater talked about this in a December 2005 interview. Stephen Leeb warns of “The Coming Economic Collapse” in his book by that title. These people are “serious Wall Street types,” at least to my uninformed eye, and what they’re saying sounds very dire.

A: You’ve got plenty of company in that worry. Readers who want to get up to speed on the issue should Google “peak oil.” Then follow the links.

My personal belief, backed by having a 20 percent allocation to energy stocks in my personal investments, is that oil and natural gas are in a long period of supply/demand imbalance, with great vulnerability to the Middle East.

Seattle Times.