2008: Oil Prices Peak and Then Decline
On July 15, 2008, a sell-off began after remarks by Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, indicated significant demand destruction within the US because of high prices. Bernanke's statement precipitated an $8 drop, the biggest since the first US-Iraq war. By the end of the week, crude oil fell 11% to $128, also affected by easing of tensions between the US and Iran. By August 13, prices had fallen to $113 a barrel. By the middle of September, oil price fell below $100 for the first time in over six months, falling below $92 in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
A stronger US dollar and a likely decline in European demand were suggested to be among the causes of the decline. By October 24, the price of crude dropped to $64.15, and closed at $60.77 on November 6.
Read more about this topic: World Oil Market Chronology From 2003
Famous quotes containing the words oil, prices, peak and/or decline:
“Eat what you can get.
Where’s the salt
in this dump of a village?
And, Lucky Man,
what’s the use
of a salty thing
if there’s no oil in it?”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are addressed, great and lofty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)