Wall Street is the villain of this latest oil crisis

Oil shortage? What oil shortage? The US Department of Energy says that there is a world surplus of oil right now, and that it's getting bigger as new oil fields come on stream. Global oil consumption grew 2% in the first quarter of this year, but production increased by 2.5%. The oft-quoted claim by the hedge fund billionaire T Boone Pickens that "when you have only 85 billion barrels a day to cover demand of 87 billion, the price has to go up" is almost exactly the reverse of the true position.