Re: A little bit on oil prices
Set your charts to a forty-year span and see what you get. I've done this in Photoshop, but have no frigging way to get it on this new system. You can adjust the DOW on your chart source, and this is a basic shot of oil prices. I call to your attention 1979, the 1980s, and the year 2000.
Your point on conditions in the Middle East is more valid, and corresponds more directly.
I'll let podrock or someone else explain how oil futures work. It's the same reason that prices spike when something happens in the Middle East, even if it doesn't affect immediate supplies.
Meanwhile...
Promise Kept