Is it something like the supply of oil is spoken for, so if demand increases (or the supply chain is temporarily disrupted) it has a bigger effect since parts of the supply are off-limits due to futures and maybe derivative contracts. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Personally, I thought that the cost of getting to oil had increased and the amount of oil that was coming from the new wells was not nearly as high as it once was. So, old wells dry up; new wells are costlier and don’t fill the gap left by the dried-up old wells.

Right now, no one can afford to buy it; no demand.

The price of coal has gone down quite a bit as well, even though it has been a cool winter relative to the last few years.

clearly the urgency of alternative energy sources (regardless of the motivation (Middle East or environment) becomes lessened when oil becomes cheaper. Perhaps this was most recently manifested in the 08 election when drilling became a less significant topic as prices fell.

I wouldn’t mind a couple of more price spikes as a motivator for innovation in the energy market (though not necessarily for environmental reasons, more because I’d prefer for the Middle East to never be a strategically significant region ever again).

I worry about the international relation implications of that. Not just in a bolder Middle East (though temporary), but in a bolder Russia. Russia’s economy has risen and fallen with the price of oil just as much as the Middle East’s has.

If oil derivatives and futures are not permitted in the US, then companies will go oversees to hedge their investments / industries.

Also, no one mentions that companies like Southwest Airlines did well during the oil peak since they actually remembered basic finance and used oil futures to lock-in the cost of fuel. So people want to take that away because of “speculators?” Just because people don’t understand it doesn’t mean that it is evil.

The bubble was built on top of something structural and long term. Just because there was a bubble doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons for oil to go up. When the world economies start crawling out of the current mess, oil will skyrocket again as demand recovers.

It’s probably because some people are jerks on here when it comes to posting stuff. You’re right, someone new usually comes on here and gets bashed on their first post.