Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows

Re:Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows by jessaustin on Friday August 21, 2015 @04:59PM (#10100229)

In fact it's low because supply is increased. Saudi was annoyed by North American innovation, and sought to dissuade private investors from financing any more of it. Private investors do wish that the price were higher, but it turns out that exploration and production costs are now low enough for North American production to be profitable still. For the most part, despotic regimes who control various national oilfields are suffering in the current market. Either Saudi don't care which of their competitors go out of business, or they have other reasons to keep production high over the medium term.

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Re:Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows by zkhalique on Friday August 21, 2015 @05:27PM (#10100366)

It is a race to the bottom in oil to fend off the development of new oil, but that will still happen once imported oil becomes more scarce.

The problem is that capitalism rapes externalities.

Even if you are not against the killing of an individual animal for food, for instance, the capability of doing so drives an increase in demand which drives an increase in supply -- billions of animals raised for the sole purpose of being killed for food. And then we try to do it more efficiently, at less cost, in factory farms. And economics drives us to this.

Similarly, the supply of oil will drive down prices and now result in newfound uses for it, we WILL use it up until none is left. And it's all in the atmosphere.

Same with elephant tusks in Africa being poached.

Same with overfishing.

Capitalism may be just too efficient... the name of the game is to increase money velocity through the system ... so without inflation, we will actually go even faster and eventually turn all the resources into garbage.

Oh and the greatest demand expansion of all... human population growth. The more people the faster we pollute. It's unsustainable. But all we can talk about are the cents each person is saving at the gas pump... really people?

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Re:Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows by pyre on Friday August 21, 2015 @06:03PM (#10100517)

The real "problem" with Capitalism is that the effects of the trade-offs being made are either not felt directly by the perpetrators or the feedback loop is too long that you end up in a "slowly boiling frog" situation.

If the person that reaps all of the money for a particular business makes enough money off of the venture that they can insulate themselves from the consequences, that is a failure of Capitalism. For example, someone lives in a community that depends on a particular waterway. They make a bunch of money by skimping on correct disposal of toxic waste, instead dumping it into the waterway. Once they've "made it," they take the money and leave the area. They are no longer feeling the effects of their actions, instead they are forcing them onto others. This is the legacy of Capitalism.

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Re:Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows by icebraining on Friday August 21, 2015 @06:54PM (#10100753)

A supporter of capitalism would say the problem there is the lack of capitalism - someone should have owned the waterway, so that they'd have an incentive to sue if there was someone dumping stuff.

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Re:Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows by cma on Friday August 21, 2015 @10:31PM (#10101275)

That would need changes to laws. A real supporter of capitalism would say the government should be owned by a king or group of shareholders who could put those kind of laws into place and defund the care of the disabled, etc.

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