Any thoughts on Mr. Taylor?s Claims?
U.S. Demands Greater Oil Output, Lower Prices
"Finance ministers from the United States and other major industrialized countries, hoping to affect the outcome of a battle within the Organization for the Petroleum Exporting Countries, formally demanded yesterday that oil-exporting nations raise production and lower prices to a level 'that is consistent with lasting economic prosperity,'" The New York Times reports. In "OPEC Is No Friend of Ours," Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies, writes: "If OPEC disappeared tomorrow, oil prices would drop to somewhere around $8 a barrel and gasoline prices would almost certainly be south of $1 a gallon. A price collapse of that magnitude would do more for consumer welfare and the overall health of the American economy than almost anything that's been put on the table by President Bush or his Democratic Party rivals. Accordingly, the OPEC cartel should be resisted, not embraced, and policy should aim at undermining it, not propping it up."
