[expat_panama]

The fall in oil prices could bring down a lot of marginal players. That wouldn’t matter, except that the banking system, running true to form, is linked in with them.

That's kind of what the article is saying but these days most folks are linking collapse with an increase in oil's price, not a decrease.

• Oil Caused Recession, Not Wall Street - Oil-price.net
• Did the Oil Price Boom of 2008 Cause Crisis? - WSJ Blogs
• Did High Oil Prices Help Cause The 2008 Financial Crisis ...
• Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007–08

[kjam22]

From your WSJ Blog link.... "The housing bubble saw people of lesser means traveling further afield to buy homes. That gave them long commutes that they were able to afford when gas was $2 a gallon, but maybe they couldn’t at $3. Housing in the exurbs got hit hardest, and one reason why is that high gasoline prices made it hard for people to lived in them to keep up with their mortgage payments, "

That's just mumbo jumbo. What caused and broke the housing bubble was stupid people buying way more than they could afford with crazy financing terms because they were all convinced that they'd make big bucks in about 3 years and move on to another house they could never afford. I argued on this site with dozens of "conservatives" who were making the case that buying their over priced homes in the ascending market and using interest only loans etc was wise investing. That the money they were throwing down was just a wise investment. Stupid people.

People's stupidity and their greed is what caused and broke the housing bubble. That combined with the government insisting people with NO MONEY or means to pay off a loan be given one because "everyone has a right to own a home".

[SAJ]

The only "marginal" players that will be "brought down" are those, typically smaller, players who are A) overleveraged or B) sitting on crude that is too expensive to extract economically or C) both.

This is about geopolitics, not economics. The Saudis want to marginalise Russia as a big player, show that they are still the bosses of OPEC, and, as a bonus, have a (temporary) shot at discouraging fracking and other production developments. Good luck to them on the last 'benefit'; won't happen.

The problem with marginalising Russia, whose economy IS in the crapper, is the increasing warlike tendencies of Putin and his crowd. Don't know how that will play out, but it WILL be dicey.