Abstract:

While most policy makers and analysts agree that the market for crude oil is worldwide, surprisingly few seem to appreciate the economic and geopolitical implications of the world oil market. These implications are critical to understanding everything from the effect that the California Severance Tax ballot initiative would have on local gasoline prices, to calls for energy independence, to the destabalizing effect of $70 oil on the Middle East, and to the real policy options that the U.S. faces in the short and medium run. I will try to convince a group of high-energy physicist that energy economics is pretty interesting too.