"(Sec of State) Clinton stated that "lives are at risk" but having lived through the Pentagon Papers and Watergate I think the real issue is that lies are at risk." - Thomas Cornick, my cousin and genius par excellence.
Oil prices have remained firm, consolidating their gains at just under $90 per barrel.
While China's equivalent of the U.S. SPR is contributing to the firmness, that is hardly the whole story.
Booming (relatively) economies within the exporting nations has far more to do with this issue than China alone.
This is not to say that China might not upset the markets by tightening credit (or if their property market blows up). There just ain't no such thing as a "sure thing" trade. That would include Oil.
If you are an investor and are not concerned with the China property issues you might not be an investor for long. That market freaks me right out of my skin. Right now I am long, but I am not "long and strong". Even if OPEC is expecting $100 Oil "Pretty Soon".
Oil has a nasty habit of dropping other markets to their knees...
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Mexico's Oil production is in steep decline, and Mexico's exports to the U.S. will approach ZERO sometime in the middle of this decade at the current rate of decline. Contrary to wishful thinking, no amount of investment in "other fields" is going to make up for declines in a field like Cantarell. That field was one of the giants, along with the North Sea and the North Slope, that brought the world back from the brink in the 1970's... but all of those fields are declining briskly... and now 5 nation's hold all of the Oil cards...
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In a country where 15% of the population needs government assistance in order to eat and where 17% are out of work and desperate... I think it is the HEIGHT OF FOLLY to drive around in a $200,000 car, wear expensive jewelry, designer clothes, or any other marker of wealth. You have to be out of your mind to want to draw attention to yourself. I cannot envision an environment where these sorts of incidences do not increase.
Take it from someone who has traveled safely in the back country of places like Columbia, Puru, Nicaragua, Brazil... do not tempt anyone. "Invisibility is the best policy".... even better than honesty in this case.
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More on my pet-peeve on sports caused spinal chord injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy... just another "freak accident"? The data is in... Peak Oil, Schmeek Oil... you need your brain and you need your spine... and you need them in perfect condition. I used to be heavily involved in Mixed Martial Arts... no more. Grappling and wrestling will continue to be interests of mine, but watching young men engaged in injuring each other's brains in a cage has lost its appeal. If you have a kid playing or interested in playing football, get him a tennis racket.