Main Street 9

Only good economic news lately has been the collapse of oil prices. At the beginning of July, just five months ago, the price of a barrel of was more than $140. By the beginning of December, it was down to about $45. That’s a drop of more than two-thirds. In the U.S., we consume about [...]

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Just how would you raise prices if you were an oil supplier? Controlling the supply — as in the 1973 OPEC embargo — has become less effective with more sources of oil worldwide. And oil suppliers clearly cannot raise prices by controlling demand in the physical oil market; ultimately, they need to sell their oil, [...]

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Traders said oil’s gains on Thursday were largely driven by news that U.S. lawmakers appeared close to a final agreement on the massive bailout plan, a deal that could help the world’s largest energy-consuming nation avoid a deep recession that would cut deeply into fuel demand.
But the deal to rescue the faltering U.S. financial system [...]

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Nearly a quarter of U.S. fuel production had been shut down due to the approach of Hurricane Ike, according to a government assessment released Friday.
By 10:00 A.M. ET, 13 of the 26 Texas refineries, representing a production capacity of 3.6 million barrels of fuel a day, had been shut down, the Energy Department said.
Texas accounts [...]

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Federal regulators said Thursday they could not determine after a lengthy review how much speculators have influenced commodity prices, especially the runup earlier this year in oil prices.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a much-anticipated report examining the activities of large index investors and so-called “swap” traders - those who trade on behalf of banks [...]

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Oil prices fell Thursday, testing a 5-month low, as the market remained focused on slumping demand and the stronger dollar but also watched the threat that Hurricane Ike poses to the Texas Gulf Coast.
Crude futures traded down 94 cents at $101.64 a barrel, having been as low as $100.18 earlier.
On Wednesday, U.S. light sweet crude [...]

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Comments by chief producer Saudi Arabia that the market was “fairly well-balanced” was seen to suggest that output would be unchanged.
US light, sweet crude for October fell $1.15, to $105.19. London Brent crude dropped $1.17 to $102.27.
Prices have sunk from a record of more than $147 a barrel seen in July.
Opec members have expressed worries [...]

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