Oil hits $100 a Barrel

Everyone knew it was coming, and now it’s here.  $100 a barrel oil. I clearly recall a financial pundit saying in an interview early last year that there was just no way oil would ever hit $100 a barrel, that he doubted it would even peak as high as $80 before stabilizing. I have given a lot of thought to the questions of 1) Who are these experts anyway, and 2) Why do they say the ridiculous things they say?

Having spent the last six years in a corporate job, I think I know. I have learned to smell corporate doublespeak a mile off. I have the nose of a bloodhound for corporate BS. No one becomes an “expert” in finance without having a corporate hand up the back of their shirt controlling their puppet-like movements. Corporations are autocratic: if you want to succeed, you say what they want to hear, no matter what kind of outright lie it happens to be.

We watch NBC news on TV at home, and we often gage what kind of financial news is about to be announced by whether they bring out the “good news girl” Maria Bartolomo, or the “bad news girl,” a fresh-faced Kansas-type innocent whose name eludes me at the moment. Lately, they have been screwing with our heads, bringing out Bartolomo to comment on bad news instead of the reassuring Dorothy-minus-Toto girl. It’s as if they think that if Maria spins bad news positively, it will magically turn into good news, just that easily. Last night she had this profound comment on $100 oil: It’s about fear.

Gosh. Rilly?

Of course it’s about fear! But the implication is that the fear is unfounded, when actually it is a completely realistic fear. Not enough oil. We’ve known since the 50’s that oil would run out about, well, now.  No preparations have been made for this inevitability. Now the country is in serious economic trouble for all kinds of reasons, and oil hits $100 a gallon. If it does not come down, this will increase the cost  nearly everything at a time when ordinary people are already hurting financially.

Asian markets fell 2% overnight over the price of oil; it will be interesting to see what happens today on Wall Street. Meanwhile, back at my cubicle at the bank, I  am only $492,000 away from what I am supposed to have sold by February 29th. I would feel horrible about myself if it weren’t for the fact that all but two people on my 13 member team are in the same shape or worse, and the two that are doing better are still around $350,000 off. The corporate solution so far has been to send a woman down from either Mount Olympus or corporate headquarters to browbeat the call center manager, who in turn is browbeating the supervisors and the workers.

People have money or they don’t. And right now, they don’t. A squad of poorly paid phone reps cannot atone for the sins of corporate mismanagement. They can try to make us fix their mess, but we can’t.

Interesting times.