Yes.... oil prices are guilty....

From a minor correction to the greatest bust since the '30's. And if the shit sky rockets again no one is safe from the next crash. Especially politicians.

Which aint all that bad come to think of it. It's just that I hate paying foreigners who want us dead because we can't drill here thanks to the assholes in Washington.


Did The Price Of Oil Help Cause The Financial Crisis Of 2008? Will Surging Oil Prices Soon Spark Another Financial Crisis?

Did The Price Of Oil Help Cause The Financial Crisis Of 2008? Will Surging Oil Prices Soon Spark Another Financial Crisis?

Oil prices are starting to spin out of control once again. In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February hit 91.89 dollars a barrel on Friday. New York crude moved above 88 dollars a barrel on Friday. Many analysts believe that 100 dollar oil is a virtual certainty now. In fact, many economists are convinced that oil is going to start moving well beyond the 100 dollar mark. So what happened the last time oil went well above 100 dollars a barrel? Oh, that's right, we had a major financial crisis. Not that subprime mortgages, rampant corruption on Wall Street and out of control debt didn't play major roles in precipitating the financial crisis as well, but the truth is that most economists have not given the price of oil the proper credit for the role that it played in almost crashing the world economy. In July 2008, the price of oil hit a record high of over $147 a barrel. A couple months later all hell broke loose on world financial markets. The truth is that having the price of oil that high created horrific imbalances in the global economy. Fortunately the price of oil took a huge nosedive after hitting that record high, and it can be argued that lower oil prices helped stabilize the world economy. So now that oil prices are on a relentless march upward again, what can we expect this time?

Well, what we can expect is more economic trouble. The truth is that oil is the "blood" of our economy. Without oil nothing moves and virtually no economic activity would take place. Our entire economic system is based on the ability to cheaply and efficiently move people and products. An increase in the price of oil puts inflationary pressure on virtually everything else in our society. Without cheap oil, the entire game changes.

The chart below shows what the price of oil has done since 1996 (although it doesn't include the most recent data). With the price of oil marching towards 100 dollars a barrel again, many people are wondering what this is going to mean for the U.S. economic "recovery"....