I think the U.S has the most influence with the Sauds. I was thinking earlier last month that this was part of a campaign to starve Putin while at the same time Putin is dumping as much oil as they can.
Then again, what is the ISIS (Eurasia) factor in this? They were dumping oil on the black market too. Is the result of trying to starve them? Because surely the amount they were dumping was insignificant really. Unless they have it piped to Turkey who I have a suspicion cultured ISIS.
Or again, is this some type of result from the concerted effort of our ‘competitors’ trying to de-monopolize the Petro-dollar?
Or again, is fracking so lucrative that the U.S — which has recently become the biggest exporter of oil — driving prices down?
I think it’s anything but a sign of a bad economy. I think it’s a good thing and that it will help jump start the economy. I’m still worried that it would be a false start, but a start it would be. I don’t think QE and low oil prices go together. The stock market scares me cause I don’t know if it’s going to skyrocket on recovery or crash when realistic projections are brought into line.
The world is going to change quite quickly over the next two years as our ‘competitors’ try and wring the last drop from Obama’s America.
Or the Arabs (especially the Saudis) are pushing down oil prices to break the oil fracking boom in the US. Lower the price so that fracking isn't practical and many of the drillers will go belly up aiding OPEC in the long term.