[Paladin2]

"When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down."

Uh, NO!

When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down.

Only sometimes. Recognize that both supply and demand are involved.

[ClearCase_guy]

But something is happening here
And you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?

[9thLife]

sigh. it's not opec. it's russia. but russia is so good at fabricating and disseminating cover stories that nobody sees it.

Russia has faked it's own death before, too.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

I remember $.25 gas. Life was good.

[fwdude]

I agree with the points presented here. Little else makes sense in these oil price drops other than lack of demand, which is being concealed by the Ministry of ‘Information’. Our economy is in shambles; the final straw has just not been laid on its back yet.

[henkster]

The writer needs to read his history. Oil spiked dramatically in the spring of 2008, and the price shock “burst the housing bubble” and triggered the crash. The spike in oil prices was its own bubble, and the reduced economic activity caused by the crash burst the oil price bubble, and it’s price collapsed as well.

Not much in common with today.

[mrsmith]

“a sign that economic activity is slowing down”
That’s the key.
Demand rules.
Low growth = low demand.

High taxes = low demand.

[867V309]

“canary in the coal mine”

Whatta-buncha-crap. Oil prices are a "dead miner-in-the coal-mine." They are now reflecting the Chinese crash because world economy has tanked.

[Larry Lucido]

Oooh, “prophesy”watch blog. No way could these guys be fricking idiots, right.

[ElkGroveDan]

The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months.

But the Phillies won the World Series that year, so there's really no correlation since the Giants won this year.

[LegendHasIt]

I think people are missing the (tin hat sounding) real thing behind this:

It is a vast conspiracy by the huge, established international oil producers to drive out the small ‘upstart’ American companies that have been booming the last few years in the Bakken and other new, and the newly productive by fracking fields in the US.

When those companies are put out of business, oil will zoom back to what it was, and likely higher.

[VeniVidiVici]

What crap. The Saudis would not have waited this long if so.

[ConservativeMind]

I side with the belief that an oil glut was created an no one chose to be the odd man out and quit producing. This sent oil prices downward.

People are already bringing out their SUVs and pickup trucks in celebration. Where before people limited their use, they are now preferring gas-intensive vehicles.

I don’t suspect new car owners will be jumping too quick to buy guzzlers, but the move continues, none-the-less.

[djf]

Anytime someone says “Keep an eye on /some sector/ JUNK BONDS, well, yeah, I get real, real nervous...

[Axenolith]

The last time junk bonds collapsed, a major stock market crash followed fairly rapidly.

And those that were hardest hit were the big Wall Street banks Taxpaying citizens…

There, fixed that...

[jyro]

total BS

[publius911]

If the price of oil stays at this level or continues falling, we will see a significant number of U.S. shale oil companies go out of business and large numbers of jobs will be lost. The Saudis know how to play hardball, and they are absolutely ruthless. In fact, we have seen this kind of scenario happen before…

Little did the western world imagine that accepting a cartel as normal in international trade was a good precedent.
They never imagined that, as a bonus, the West, indirectly, would be financing and enabling the worst world-wide muslim terrorism in 400 years.

[familyop]

Consumers have a couple of major choices. Each decides whether to get ready for the big TEOTWAWKI crash or continue to be a tourist looking for the nonexistent escape in entertainment. The former saves money and keeps the price of oil lower. The latter is the way to certain poverty, when the big collapse comes.

[Radix]

I do not think that Obama could get elected this year.

[DPMD]

Remember what happened?

Um, we paid less for gas?