Does it even matter?

Implications: Whether we are in the midst of an oil bubble is not really the fundamental question.  The real problem goes back to the 1970's and the last big oil shock.

Analysis: Soros says we are in the midst of an institutional created market bubble. Are we really? He's something of a speculator so he should know.

What is interesting here is that paper and oil are out of whack. Whereas the actual amount of oil available has changed little this year (there has been no shortage) the amount of paper chasing the oil has increased amazingly. There has been some sort of disconnect.

Soros talks of institutional buying driving up the prices. The Economist is also correct when it lays out the fundamentals - oil is perverse. When its price is low, nobody invests in finding new sources. When its price is high, everyone is looking for more.

I'm not sure if there is a bubble in the market or not. I don't know who to blame for the high prices - does one need to blame anybody at all? The bottom line is that we need to wean ourselves from this product and fast. The airline industry is literally dying - the layoffs to come are going to be horrible. The financial damage will takes a long time to fix. Comments from the current IATA AGM indicate airline managers see the current situation as worse than 9/11.

The tragedy seems to be that nothing was learned from the last oil shock. We are as dependent on this stuff as ever. One would have thought that after 30 years western economies would have developed new energy sources to remove the diabolical power the oil producers have in holding western economies for ransom.

If there's blame to throw around, we'd start there. Oil producing nations are, by and large, not seen as paragons of democracy and development. Most of the oil is found under the sand of crooked states. How is it that we got into this mess - again? Politicians seeking scapegoats might start by looking around their offices first.