The Energy Crisis: Full Circle?

It is understandable that, after a decade of oil worries, consumers and their governments should find joy in today's oil market. According to Department of Energy data, the real cost of a barrel of internationally traded oil has fallen somewhere between 25 and 40 percent over the past two years. While this poses problems for the international banking community and a number of oil‐producing nations, most experts are convinced that for the world as a whole it means higher economic growth and lower inflation.