THE OIL-DRENCHED BLACK SWAN

"In the six years from 2009 to 2014, oil production rose 3.9%, from 74 MBD to 76.9 MBD. Meanwhile, cumulative global growth at 2.7% annually added 17.3% to the global economy in the same six-year period. What is remarkable is not the extremely modest expansion of oil production but how this modest growth apparently enabled a much larger expansion of the global economy. Global petroleum and other liquids reflects a similar modest expansion: from 89.1 MBD in 2012 to 91.4 MBD in 2014. Given the presumed 17% to 20+% expansion of the global economy since 2009, the small increases in production could not possibly flood the world in oil unless demand has cratered. The 'we're pumping so much oil' rationalizations for the 37% free-fall in oil don't hold up. That leaves a sharp drop in demand and the rats fleeing the sinking ship exit from 'risk-on' trades as the only explanations left."

Zum Artikel von Charles Hugh Smith, erschienen auf OfTwoMinds (30. November 2014) »