In December 06, crude oil cost $63 a barrel.  Over the next 18 months, the price rose unceasingly at an unprecedented rate to a staggering $147 per barrel in July of 08.  Despite the fact that supply rose and demand fell for most of this time period, we were assured that this unheard of price spike was still somehow due entirely to “supply and demand”.  Now just six months later, oil is down to $35 per barrel - less than one quarter it’s July price.  Could simple supply and demand economics have screwed up so badly?

No.  It turns out that the artificially high price of oil that we labored under for a year and a half was entirely due to the investment shenanigans of the same assholes that brought you such recent hits as “The Housing Bubble Tango” and “Investment Banking Collapse A-Go-Go”.  It was all artificial, and it was all orchestrated to make some spectacularly rich people a bit richer at the expense of pretty much everybody else.  They would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their damn dog.

Wait, what’s that?  They’re going to get away with it anyway?  Fuck.

Don’t take my word for it though.  Watch this segment from 60 Minutes and see for yourself.  (via Digg)