BIKE: beating Mr. Baker to the punch

[Andrew Wimsatt]

From:

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/2005/03/11/cx_da_0311topnews.html

  "As recently as six months ago, almost no one on Wall Street was  
forecasting higher oil prices, though there were some outsiders in the  
so-called Peak Oil crowd who did see much higher prices down the road.  
Now with oil again trading at over $52 per barrel, the conventional  
wisdom seems to be that high prices are here for a while."

"If prices stay where they are, Americans will spend $330 billion on  
oil this year. That would be a record in real terms, although, adjusted  
for inflation, the U.S. oil bill was higher in the early 1980s. Of that  
$330 billion, $221 billion will be for imported oil, the money funneled  
overseas."

"But the good news is that, for the U.S., overall economic growth has  
left the nation spending a much smaller percentage of its income for  
oil in particular and for energy overall than it did in the oil crisis  
era. In 1981, the U.S. was spending 13% of gross domestic product on  
energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Energy  
costs could be around 8% of gross domestic product this year. That's  
where the U.S. was in the early 1970s. "

"The share of GDP used to pay for oil is likely to double from 2002  
levels. But it's still less than 3%, half the 1981 share. To be sure,  
much smaller increases have touched off recessions (or have at least  
been factors) (see: "Is Oil The Third Whammy?"). But the larger economy  
can probably take the hit better than it could a generation ago."

The article notes that U.S. oil consumption was around 5.1 billion  
barrels in 1981,  5.9 billion barrels in 2000, 6.5 billion barrels in  
2004, and is projected to be around 6.3 billion barrels in 2005.

Andrew

On Mar 12, 2005, at 5:50 PM, Phil Hallmark wrote:

>  
> Does this article say what I THINK it says?? Has OPEC reached  
> production capacity now?
>  
> http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=749&e=1&u=/ap/20050312/ 
> ap_on_bi_ge/algeria_opec
>
> _______________________________________________
> Get on or off this list here:  http://BicycleAustin.info/list
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