The effects of oil prices are more far-reaching than most people realize.
That's because petroleum permeates nearly every corner of our economy.
For example, just recently it was revealed that low oil prices were going to hurt elderly Americans in particular. Last week, the federal government announced it will not increase the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for fiscal 2016 due to low gas prices.
Here are four other less-considered ways the price of oil impacts our lives...
The effects of oil prices are more far-reaching than most people realize.
That's because petroleum permeates nearly every corner of our economy.
For example, just recently it was revealed that low oil prices were going to hurt elderly Americans in particular. Last week, the federal government announced it will not increase the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for fiscal 2016 due to low gas prices.
Here are four other less-considered ways the price of oil impacts our lives...
The prospect for oil prices in the near future looks significantly more positive. By the end of the second quarter or shortly thereafter, we believe oil prices will rise.
This is despite the recent monthly report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that projects a more prolonged oil glut than initially forecast.
Here is what the IEA got wrong...
Low oil prices may have a silver lining, after all. Without a doubt, oil stocks have taken a pasting in recent months as oil prices have plunged more than 50%. But Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald, a seasoned market analyst with 33 years of experience, views such turmoil not with dread, but optimism. […]
Crashing oil prices are certainly one of the biggest stories of the past six months.
Indeed, as the price of crude continues to drop, currently hovering just under a once-unthinkable $50 per barrel price, the issue is sure to be in the news well into the foreseeable future.
But the issue goes beyond simply lower prices, and it spawns some even bigger questions:
Are supply and demand really the drivers at work? Is it political warfare above all? How will global markets react when prices rebound?
One way or another, the implications of much lower oil prices are huge, and will impact markets, industries, and sectors across the board throughout the coming year.
All of which leaves investors wondering what to do next, and how to play this changing-by-the-day industry.
Oil prices continued to fall this week but stock markets shrugged off the disarray this continued to cause in global markets after Janet Yellen whispered soothing words in their ears after the Fed's last meeting of the year on Wednesday. Mrs. Yellen has become a "bull whisperer" - fearful of upsetting the equity market, she cloaks her words in indirection and equivocation in an effort to keep them calm as she prays for an economic lift-off that will take her institution off the hook.
Unfortunately, her patient is likely to be very disappointed, for it would take an economic miracle the likes of which hasn't been seen in this country since the years after the Second World War to deal with the mountain of existing debt and future liabilities that are going to bury us.
While public attention remains fixed on OPEC, crude pricing, and the impact on American tight and shale oil production, I've been focused on the next stage.
The one where the guys with the big bucks make the even bigger bucks.
It's the "next financing sequence," and it will unfold based on three interlocking developments...
