The non-oil trade balance stabilizes. Petroleum-related imports exceed the US-China trade deficit.
Category Archives: energy
2006 and the Econbrowser crystal ball
This seems like a good time to review some of the occasions over the last year when I’ve been brave (or foolish) enough to make a specific quantitative prediction.
So who wants Russia’s oil and gas, anyway?
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them,” Lenin is said to have boasted.
Is peak oil irrelevant?
Does the market price of oil reflect a recognition that the resource is fundamentally limited?
Proposition 87 expenditures
Last week I discussed the way in which California’s Proposition 87, the Clean Alternative Energy Act, would raise revenues. Today I take a look at some of the implications of its proposed use of those funds.
Proposition 87 tax plan
Sixteen of the 191 pages that Californians are asked to read in order to vote intelligently in the upcoming election are devoted to discussion of Proposition 87, the Clean Alternative Energy Act. This calls for $4 billion or more in new taxes and spending. In this post, I discuss only the tax side of this proposal, and hopefully will have an opportunity to take up the spending details in a sequel.
So now the Saudis did it
Some people remain intent on believing that falling oil prices are the result of a conspiracy to keep Republicans in power. No sooner had I addressed the theory that Goldman Sachs had somehow initiated the huge price swings currently underway than a new theory pops up to replace it.
The great gasoline price conspiracy
Have you heard the latest explanation for how President Bush contrived to lower gasoline prices in time for the election?
Amaranth hedge fund losses
How in the world did hedge fund Amaranth Advisors manage to lose $6 billion in September on natural gas trading?
Environmental totalitarianism
What do Russia and California have in common?