Word: gluts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...result of these developments, a worldwide mini-glut of oil is appearing, and some petroleum prices have at long last begun to ease. On the bellwether international "spot" market, where small amounts of crude are traded at free market rates, prices have slipped from a high of more than $41 per bbl. late last year to a current level...
Still, the spot market's softness probably does not foreshadow lower fuel costs for consumers. The mini-glut is nearly microscopic: there is an estimated surplus of no more than 800,000 bbl., out of a total non-Communist worldwide production of about 53 million bbl. per day. "It is absurd to talk of a glut," says one West German oilman. "So long as any one of a number of oil-producing nations can create shortages, the world's energy supply hangs by an exceedingly thin thread...
...present soft job market, policymakers are worried about a glut of recent graduates with advanced degrees in the humanities and social sciences. Roughly 25% of humanities majors are jobless after graduation, and many of them eventually have to find work in other fields. These subjects, moreover, are frequently taught from a Marxist perspective in France. During a recent speech, Saunier-Seïté bluntly warned students to beware of the "Marxist domination" and "ideological imperialism" rampant in faculty lounges and student cafeterias. But that just made many academics all the more wary of Saunier...
...companies and major petroleum-importing countries to maintain large reserves as a cushion against future price increases or production shortfalls. World reserves are about 300 million bbl. above normal for this period, and both the U.S. and Japan have decided to increase their stockpiles. Without that small world glut, OPEC would probably be pushing up prices even faster. Libyan Oil Minister Abdul Salam Zagaar, who is normally one of the OPEC hawks, said after the Bali meeting: won't ask for higher prices if the market won't permit...
...steel glut is worst in Western Europe. Says Common Market Commission President Roy Jenkins: "The steel industry is in a state of manifest crisis." While stockpiles have been climbing, prices have dropped about 10% to 15% since last year. In the past five years the industry has lost an estimated 145,000 jobs. The Europeans have long had a thinly veiled cartel arrangement that included voluntary quotas on steel production. But when the market went into a free-fall slump early this year, the agreement fell apart, and many companies began scrambling to undercut their competitors. Firms were often selling...