Oil prices

Excerpts from a BBC article :

'The price of oil has made a record jump to nearly $139 a barrel, amid reports it could reach $150 by July because of rising demand and political tension. Crude in New York gained more than $10 - its biggest-ever one-day rise.

The spike in oil prices coincided with a dollar slump, plummeting share prices on Wall Street and US unemployment suffering its biggest rise in 20 years.

The BBC's North America Editor, Justin Webb, says the gloomy figures are a reminder to all Americans that the nation faces serious economic problems and perhaps even a recession.

Oil prices were given a boost on a report by Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer, who suggested the price of oil could rocket to $150 as early as July.

Some analysts have suggested that prices would reach as high as $200 a barrel during the next 18 months. "

The full article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7440536.stm.

The main force pushing the oil price to rise is the unlimited greed of producers and distributors - sometimes that is called the free market mechanism.

And sooner or later the role of analysts must be analysed (no pun intended). I have some experience with the species. I met some of the best in my professional sector and I was not always very impressed. There were a couple of very keen ones, and then there were buckets full of guys who knew a minimum about finances - sectoral knowledge was not always required as it came with "experience" - and were not good enough or not mature enough to take more responsible posts.

With the help of the media, they whip up prices while they do not bear any market or other responsibility for their actions. In my most contrarian moments, I sometimes think they provoke a movement in order to be able to speculate on it, but then, I probably overestimate their power a little bit.