Investing to Wealth

Filed under: Oil, Recession

With oil moving toward $50 a barrel, it would be fair to assume the OPEC would push to tighten supplies as soon as possible. Some of its members, particularly Venezuela and Iran, say that their national economies are suffering now that oil is well down from summer prices, which ran over $120 for some time.

But, OPEC cannot gets its act together. At its meeting this weekend, plans to cut supplies to increase prices fell off the rails.

According to Reuters, "OPEC on Saturday deferred a decision on a new oil supply cut amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are demanding tighter adherence to restraints put in place over the past two months."

The fighting within the cartel is remarkably good news for big Western economies, China, and India. Higher oil prices would push regions that are already weak into a deeper recession.

Since oil and gas prices helped slowdown many national economies, it is only fitting that relief could be a keep factor to giving consumers, particularly those in the U.S., a chance to pay their gasoline costs and their mortgages instead of having to pick one or the other.

The OPEC "non-decision" may be the only good economic news this quarter.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com

Big OPEC meeting goes nowhere originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.