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Description of Petromania

The spike in the oil price to almost $150 per barrel in summer 2008 was the last great excess of the crazed noughties bull markets, staged even as stock markets crumbled worldwide. Contrary to entrenched establishment opinion still embraced by many, 'Petromania' proves this oil price blowout was a classic speculative bubble, but driven primarily by new modes of financial speculation.

Demolishing widespread, oft-repeated but incorrect arguments that such trade in paper barrels cannot move oil prices, 'Petromania' details how this financialisation of the oil markets meshed with other trends to create a moment that saw investment banks and hedge funds collectively wield more power over the price of black gold than OPEC or any multinational oil company. It also shows how regulatory blindness to the 'dark matter' of modern finance caused so many to confuse fantasy with reality for so long.

'Petromania' matters not just because fortunes were won and lost in oil's dizzying ascent and crash, but because this bubble spelled misery for ordinary people worldwide, destabilised developing world governments, and delayed interest rate cuts desperately needed to address the ongoing global recession. 'Petromania' matters because while all eyes are on the crippled banking system, we risk ignoring valuable lessons about twenty-first century markets from this other great boom-and-bust - even as the forces that blew the bubble are once again at work.

And 'Petromania', this tale of black gold, dark matter and paper barrels, is written by one of the few commentators who correctly called the bubble before it burst.

Title Information

ISBN:

9781906659776

Format:

eBook

Product Code:

454133

Publisher:

Harriman House

Published:

27/08/2010

Edition:

1st Edition

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About Daniel O'Sullivan

Daniel O'Sullivan is a journalist who has covered the energy and mining sectors for the past decade. He is currently employed by the Investors Chronicle magazine, part of the Financial Times Group.

Contents of Petromania

Table of Figures
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction

1. The Ascent
2. Paper Barrels
3. The Financialisation of Oil
4. The Peak Weeks
5. A Bubble by Any Other Name
6. Petromania Redux

Sources & Bibliography
Index