Word: barrelfuls
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...prices began to fall in late summer, after gas topped $4 a gallon, and the drumbeat of bad economic news has sent them ever lower. "Prices got to an insane level," Texas economist M. Ray Perryman says, "but they are equally insane now." With the price of a barrel of oil hovering in the $45 range and natural gas cut in half from a high of $14 per thousand cubic feet, the domestic energy sector is now at a critical "tipping point," Perryman says. If prices dip lower, he adds, the pace of the slowdown will quicken as domestic...
...latest cut follows an October cut of 1.5 million barrels a day, which failed to arrest the downward slide in oil futures - prices have plunged a further 18% since November, deepening fears among oil-rich nations of an economic disaster at home. Whereas in July, with futures at a record high of $147 a barrel, the daily oil earnings for Opec's 11 members stood at $4 billion, this week, with oil hovering at around $43 a barrel, the cartel's combined daily earnings stood closer to $1.2 billion. Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said last month...
...government, the Democrat Party aligned with one of its most vocal critics, Newin Chidchob. An erstwhile ally of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who now lives in exile after being convicted in absentia on abuse of power charges, Newin has made his reputation as a hard-nosed pork-barrel specialist. His brand of politics hardly hews to the more urban-centered intellectualism of the Democrats. Indeed, Thailand may be returning to the days of weak coalitions that dry up as quickly as rain puddles in the tropical sun. Even the anti-Thaksin Nation newspaper has questioned Abhisit's "ability...
Today, Russia's finances look a lot less robust. The government budget was based on oil at $70 per barrel, way above the current ? level, and it will consequently swing into deficit next year for the first time since 2001. The stock market has dropped more than 70% in the past year, as the nation's business élite dumped stocks to repay the huge loans they took out to finance acquisitions in Russia and abroad. Capital is fleeing - investors have pulled about $190 billion out of Russia since August - and the ruble is under pressure...
...only good economic news lately has been the collapse of oil prices. At the beginning of July, just five months ago, the price of a barrel of was more than $140. By the beginning of December, it was down to about $45. That's a drop of more than two-thirds. In the U.S., we consume about 15 million bbl. of crude a day. The saving of $95 per bbl. adds up to more than $500 billion a year. That's big - enough to bail out the auto industry 15 times...