$100 a barrel? Myth vs. reality: suddenly everyone was saying it: the price of oil would reach $100 a barrel or more for the next few years. What was once the prediction of a few hearty forecasters (or crackpots, depending on your point of view) suddenly seemed a realistic prospect according to the media.
FURTHER REFLECTION SINCE the groundswell erupted in May gives pause for thought: while, sooner or later, oil prices may hit $100 or more a barrel, panic stations are not yet called for. Geopolitics, national politics, corporate politics, the hedge funds, the weather, and, of course, consumer behaviour could yet...

Behind the high price of gas: so that Americans have access to reliable, affordable gas and oil, American oil companies need to develop domestic sources of supply, but the government won't let them.
Whenever gasoline prices increase significantly in a relatively short period of time and news media report concurrently that the profits of oil companies are also rising, one can predict, almost like clockwork, widespread public outrage. Cries of "obscene profits" will arise, along with demands that the state and federal...

Gold fever.
The world's oldest trusted asset and monetary hedge, gold--or the yellow ore--first discovered in southern Iraq some 5,000 years ago, is back in fashion due to buoyant demand in the Middle East and India, which together comprise half of annual gold sales worldwide. Private, institutional and official investors are...

Communication changing lives: the communication and information technology revolution has reached far and wide, and as Bamuturaki Musinguzi finds out, it is now touching rural Uganda.
Standing at his residence in Kiyindi Landing Site in Mukono District, Uganda, Ali Kadudu tells me he has earned a lot from the telephone he is holding in his hand. "I have bought a lot of things; like a plot of land, a bicycle, selling of used cloths on...

How IMF, World Bank failed Africa.
Welcome to how the IMF and World Bank run the show in Africa and, thus, lead our countries down the garden path. This report was put together by the London-based World Development Movement (WDM) as its contribution to the ongoing debate on what kind of global institutions would improve...

Agribusiness and farmers in Mexico: the importance of contractual relations.
Introduction Recent changes in food consumption habits of people in developed countries have included a growing demand for a greater variety of value-added products, which, in turn, has given rise to greater sophistication in food processing and distribution systems (Perry and Banker 2000, 50). This has led...

California energy crisis trial looms: energy traders who gamed the system in California may finally be getting their due.
The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon after press time on a key piece of evidence, kick-starting the long awaited criminal trial involving Houston-based Reliant Energy's alleged scheme to boost profits by shutting down power plants in California during the height of the state's...

Comptroller Conners says Biofuels Key to Oil Independence.
Some citizens try to fight the war on gasoline pricing through chain letters, proposing boycotts of certain oil companies, or by proposing a date when citizens refrain from purchasing gasoline. Perhaps some citizens will go along with the protest, but analysts believe that is more of an inconvenience to...

Double trouble.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For years, green groups have warned that the increasing petroleum development of the tar sands in Alberta could pose one the greatest environmental mistakes of the century. Al Gore--seeking to place the development in the context of our society's petroleum addiction--has likened extracting oil from...

Mick Cooper's book.
I have just received a copy of Mick Cooper's book Robbing the Sparry Garniture--a fascinating in-depth study and account of British Mineral dealerships of yore. I was acquainted with one of those dealers, Edgar Percy Bottley, charicatured on page 148. He headed a "quaint" establishment (Gregory, Bottley & Co.)...