Here we go again. Oil prices tumbling "in the steepest four day decline in history."

The sense of relief throughout the land is palpable. For a moment the fact that we are still at levels over 160% above prices of only a year and a half ago -- prices unheard...

In the depth of the depression, President Roosevelt, with gumption and imagination sought different solutions, different thinking to deal with the crippling economic conditions that had descended on the nation. He asked Congress to mandate the creation of "a corporation clothed with the power of government but possessed of the...

An acquaintance, knowledgeable, observant and oft-traveled passed along to me his observations. He noted friends in OPEC countries conveyed to him a keen sense of incredulousness about the US. He reported this is what they are saying, and I paraphrase:

"Let's see if I understand this correctly? You, in the...

OPEC, speculation in commodities market, hedge funds, the falling dollar, peak oil theorists, all play a part in the current run up in oil prices. Yet one of the major players has escaped both scrutiny and careful analysis. Consider two items that were news this past month:

- Russia's new...

Once a year there is a remarkable gathering of people in Aspen from all disciplines in life and an occasional interloper. Leaders in Academia, Politics, Business, the Arts, and Science. The conversations, seminars, and lectures are pretty heady in a rarefied yet pointed and pragmatic way. It...

What was billed as a serious meeting between producing nations and consuming nations, held in Jeddah last weekend, turned out to be a Saudi public relations ploy playing on the concerns of those impacted by high oil prices. Nothing meaningful was accomplished, no significant change in policy other than permitting...

The Pooh-Bahs of the oil world, both producer and consumer, will be meeting this weekend summoned to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi. The question is why are prices at levels that nobody seems to be able to explain, levels that seriously and...

President Bush, responding to the national outrage over soaring gasoline prices will be calling on Congress to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling . The issue of offshore drilling is being deeply debated and becoming a hot-button issue in the campaign. President Bush in a press...

Can't you hear it now? The drums and hosannas around the energy desk at the New York Times? The high fives, the back slapping. Their guys did it. The Saudis are going into high gear and are going to pump more oil. And all their buddies at the Times are...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sought to tap into Americans' anxiety over high gasoline prices by pledging to seek a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies if elected.
"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help...

It has become clear over the last eight years that the people in this administration are completely out of touch with the staggering impact the quintupling of oil prices has had on the nation's citizenry. Those in the administration live in a different world. Household budgets are not within their...

Yesterday oil had its largest one-day gain on record. The oil contract was up a total of $6.08 per barrel including after-hours trading to $128.56 per barrel -- the day before Ben S. Bernanke spoke at his Harvard alma mater to graduating seniors.

Incredibly, seemingly oblivious to homes freezing...

How appropriate. How ironic. Bloomberg quoting Hank Paulson on a plane heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia "If you look at the facts, they show that the price of oil is about supply and demand". Duh!? -- Thereby echoing the oiligopoly's dissembling mantra, which was hereby characterized in a recent post,...

This administration has wasted near eight years without giving the nation a coherent energy policy, a policy urgently needed that would:
- Dramatically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels
- Bring down the price of crude oil arresting the massive transfer of wealth to oil companies and oil...

300,000 Barrels a day. That's all. After his second humiliating hat in hand, hand holding visit in five months with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia all that President Bush could coax from his 'friend' was an exceedingly modest increase in oil production, more token than meaningful, of 300,000 barrels/day. This...

On May 12, upon reading Paul Krugman's bizarre Op-Ed "The So-Called Oil Bubble," they must have been popping champagne corks at the American Petroleum Institute. The New York Times, consistently off-base when reporting on oil markets and their construct (please see "The New York Times' Hidden Hand on...

Crazy? Well yes, but perhaps you better check out that fox before you jump to conclusions. Just this weekend the Financial Times reported that camel demand on the Asian Sub-Continent is soaring ("Camel Demand Soars as Oil Price Makes Tractors Too Costly to Run," 05.04.08). Or as the Financial Times...

In a classic example of how perverse reporting on matters oil have become, how slanted the information we are presented, the somersaults the oil company flacks perform to keep a somnolent public and government in their trance of inaction, and a gullible press happy to pass along oil patch pitches...

Ironically, last Sunday the New York Times' front page headlined " Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand". On the front page of the Week in Review section Jad Mouawad set out to instruct us that oil's future is murky ("The Big Thirst"). If ever a commentator on a...