It's Baaaack! Oil - that is

Jeff is one of the most informed and informing oil analysts

Amplify’d from www.theglobeandmail.com

Should demand grow by another 2 to 2.5 per cent this year, crude prices could easily be taking out last cycle’s high of $147 (U.S.) per barrel. And if the speculators jump on the bandwagon, the forecast I made three years ago for $200-per-barrel oil prices in 2012 may yet pan out, the recession of 2009 notwithstanding.

Every major global recession over the last 40 years has had oil’s fingerprints all over it. The first OPEC oil shock led to a devastating recession in 1973, only to be followed by the double-dip recessions on the heels of the second OPEC shock. When Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq and lit its oil fields on fire, pushing oil up to the then unheard-of high of $40 per barrel, once again recession quickly ensued. And of course, when oil prices surged to a record-high $147 per barrel, the deepest post-war recession ever followed close behind.

So why should we expect our next rendezvous with those prices to yield any different results? Read more at www.theglobeandmail.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bmqr3

via Amplify.com