Crude oil reaches $127/bbl and everyone gets worked up. Oil companies are blamed and their 'huge profits' criticised despite the fact that if you want prices to go down then they need to spend all of those profits on looking for more of the stuff. Hedge funds and speculators are blamed for being greedy and driving up prices despite the fact that crude oil supply is simply the issue. And consumers winge and moan about having to pay $4 for a gallon of gas.

Well, you know a gallon of starbucks coffee is a whole lot more expensive than a gallon of oil or gasoline but nobody seems to complain about the price of that coffee. And what is the use of coffee? Ok - it tastes good but it is simply a luxury item, something you can all live without yet chose to buy anyway. Meanwhile without crude oil - no gasoline, no diesel, no aviation fuel, no plastics, no polyester, fewer medicines.... need I go on?

The problem is that no one truly values that black stuff until the price goes up. No one understands how hard and costly it is to find. No one understands that the reason we are in this mess with tight crude oil supply is because politicians in the US and elsewhere have simply failed to come up with an energy strategy worthy of anyone's consideration. It's all so much easier to blame speculators, terrorists, hedge funds, greedy oil companies and anyone else than to ACTUALLY FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM.