such as BP\’s annual announcement that there is 40 years of supply or more, and no danger of supply falling short of demand, so ambushing oil-addicted economies.
He keeps making this statement and keeps ignoring all of the attempts made to correct him on it.
There is no such thing as demand exceeding supply: there is only the balancing of supply and demand at a price. As long as we stick with a market system price will change so as to balance that supply and demand.
If prices rise then demand falls: if supply falls then prices will rise and thus demand fall.
Still, we should give him credit for this:
In the interim, I pointed out, more and more people had become worried about the prospect for a premature peak in global oil production, not least the companies in the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES).
As far as I can tell this \”UK Industry\” task force is six companies out of the 2.15 million registered for VAT. But, gather up a few buddies, give yourself an impressive sounding name and your pronouncements, indistinguishable from those made by you on your tod as a solar panel salesman, are more likely to get picked up and greeted with a chin stroke rather than the guffaws and hoots of derision they deserve.
So even as Mr. Leggett fails Econ 101 he seems to be mastering PR101. My, aren\’t we the lucky ones?
As Henry Hazlitt put it supply and demand are “two-sides of the same coin.”
@Kit,
“coin” being the operative word, I fear.
Leggett did get a sneer from Paxo, but only a grade 4 sneer, which in itself was also a form of put-down, Leggett not worthy of anything more severe.
The Peak Oil Task Force is in fact even less impressive than that. Unsurprisingly all it’s reports consist of dodgy policy advice which will be of massive benefit to it’s members.
http://awickerman.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/my-cynicism-in-action/