If there is anything resembling a silver lining to the economic turmoil that has ensnared the world, it is the prospect of falling energy prices. The price of crude oil has fallen by more than 50 percent since setting a record high this past summer. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the producers' cartel that tries to control oil prices, will hold an emergency meeting next week to try to set a floor for those plummeting prices.
The prospect of OPEC cutting production to hold prices at such high levels is outrageous, as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested last week. Yet, the world needs stable energy prices; the impact of speculation and market manipulation must be minimized.
The changing structure of global demand has steadily increased the price of crude oil. Blistering economic growth in China and steady expansion in India, Asia and the Middle East propelled energy prices to a record $147.27 a barrel in July. Continuing high demand would keep prices high. A few bulls forecast prices would reach and stabilize at $200 a barrel; more sober analysts saw markets reaching equilibrium at $105 a barrel.