Reasons to be cool

THE TALK of record oil prices, which crops up in hysterical newspaper articles every time the oil price chart marks a peak, seems to suggest that oil markets have finally spiralled out of control and are threatening to cast the world into permanent economic chaos. Although crude oil prices are at historically robust levels, this has always been the case when supply struggles to meet demand and particularly so when, as is the case now, conflicts threaten to snap the already taut string of supply. Yet prices have been at significantly higher levels and past crises have been more acute (in 1981, crude prices reached the equivalent of $80 a barrel in today's money). There are many reasons not to