As we ring in the New Year, let’s take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months. The big question is what oil prices will do in 2015. Oil prices are unsustainably […]
Top Five Factors Affecting Oil Prices In 2015 Read More »
When looking at prices of anything from cars to oil to gold or stocks… we need to keep in mind our personal frame of reference. We see prices as they are priced in our currency i.e. the currency that we earn in. International companies are especially aware of this as their income can be in one currency while their expenses are in another.
Using a U.S. centric frame of reference we might think that gold didn’t perform very well in 2014 but people from the rest of the world would disagree. Today, Jeff Clark, Senior Precious Metals Analyst for Casey Research looks at the effects of currencies on the price of gold. ~Tim McMahon, editor.
Gold Up Almost Everywhere in 2014 Read More »
In the global chess game of energy politics every move affects more than a single opponent and the effects of low oil prices are not equally distributed. Some countries will be hurt by low prices more than others. Who will lower oil prices hurt more, Russia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela… the U.S. ? In today’s article, Andrew Topf of Oilprice.com looks at some of the background and cause and effect of lower energy prices.
Driving Down Oil Prices Just to Hurt Russia is “Simplistic” Read More »
The US has come so close to becoming energy independent. But it’s going to have to get its head around the idea that it could become a big oil importer again. In the end, the US energy boom may add up to nothing more than an illusion dependent upon the artificially cheap debt environment created by the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy.
The Oil Slump Will Hurt the U.S. Too Read More »
In recent posts we’ve told you about Russia Eying Crimea’s Oil and Gas Reserves and about the Total War over the Petrodollar and More on the PetroDollar and we’ve considered why the recent OPEC meeting maintained production in spite of declining prices rather than cutting production to keep prices up as they’ve done in the past. There has been some speculation that falling oil prices would hurt Russia (and a variety of other energy producers like U.S. natural producers, wild-catters, small production companies, etc.).
But in today’s article Marin Katusa takes a look at the flip side of falling oil prices and Russia’s resilience. ~Tim McMahon, editor.
Why Russia is Unfazed by Falling Oil Prices Read More »
Oil prices are falling and that is good for consumers as their daily heating and transportation costs fall. It also benefits producers as a small company could easily save $100,000 a year in energy costs. If you multiply that by the number of businesses in the country you can see the staggering effect lower energy prices can have on the economy. But not everyone is happy about falling energy prices. Many conventional energy and alternative energy producers require oil prices to be above $70/ barrel in order for their business models to remain in the black. And all of the OPEC countries except two require higher oil prices in order for them to balance their countries budgets. So although oil prices are low now it may not last.
Oil Price Tumbles After OPEC Releases 2015 Forecast Read More »
In today’s post Grant Williams looks at a hypothetical story of the “history” of gold looking back from the future… “It began in early November of 2014, when a man called Alasdair Macleod published a report on how the Chinese had been secretly buying gold for 30 years.”
The Story of Gold’s Future History Read More »
Oddities in the gold market have been alleged for quite some time, but few know where to start looking, and even fewer have the patience to dig out the meaningful bits from the mountain of market data available. In today’s article Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad turns his keen eye to the Gold sector in order to discover how the big banks are using the futures market to manipulate the price of gold.
How “Paper Gold” Affects the Price of the Metal Read More »
Are Gold’s price swings as truly unpredictable as Bernanke, Yellen and Greenspan would have you believe? Is gold really a Barbarous relic with no place in a modern portfolio? Or is gold a valid insurance policy against the Fed’s $4 trillion balance sheet which is just a “pile of tinder, but hasn’t been lit”? In today’s article we are going to look at a model that predicted the recent peak in gold and current drop.
A GREAT Model to Understand Gold’s Price Swings Read More »
If you are going to understand the relationship between the Middle East, China, Russia and the U.S. you need to understand the role the Petrodollar plays in all of this. So with that in mind we present another look at the Petrodollar in this article
More on the PetroDollar Read More »
