oil shock

re-posted from my blog - oilshockhorrorprobe

9 months after a tentative start last September, and with 45 posts clocked up here at Oil Shock Horror Probe, I thought it was time to re-cap. What are the trends and themes that have emerged so far?

It's the economy stupid

Higher oil prices are already negatively impacting our economy » Read more

re-posted from my blog - oilshockhorrorprobe

It has long been suspected that Western governments have been investigating peak oil and its impacts on the economy, but keeping the information hidden from the public. In the case of the UK government we now have definitive proof that this has been happening. The Guardian has reported (15 June) that UK ministers have ignored peak oil warnings. » Read more

It's said a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at these graphs and see if you can make any sense of the government's response to oil prices rising and it's transport policy. Damned if I can. (hat tip to Auckland Transport blog and frog blog)

Traffic volumes on State Highways have not increased since 2005. » Read more

Suddenly the world's media is awash with concern that the recent rise in oil prices will stall economic growth worldwide and cause another global recession. Guardian and here BBC Wall Street Journal

Finally, even in New Zealand, Brian Fallow economic commentator for the New Zealand Herald expresses concern about the implications for the New Zealand economy from rapidly rising oil prices.

It has taken the uprising in Libya to finally focus the mind of commentators on the dire effects on the world economy of oil prices. But most of this analysis fails to acknowledge that prices were already rising rapidly well before the uprising is in the Middle East due to accelerating demand in developing nations, as well as in oil producing countries. And that the Libyan crisis and the speculation that has followed is a “fear premium” on the price -- which was already rapidly rising due to fundamentals of supply and demand.

» Read more