I've not thought this through 100% but was anybody else non-plused to hear 
Gordon Brown on The World Tonight (28/5) talking about Oil Prices in terms 
of a "3rd Oil Shock"?

I don't profess to understand the sub-prime market in all its minutiae but I 
can't believe the greed of the US credit agencies can be compared to the 
ransom (hope that's no too strong a word) that the world was held to in 1973 
and 1978.

Markets are (or rather should be) regulated to prevent such situations as 
the current crisis happening whereas the 70s incidents were simply a case of 
supply and demand - and the suppliers realised they could charge what they 
liked and promptly did - this is different.

For Brown to call it a shock didn't seem right to me.

lk wrote:
|| I've not thought this through 100% but was anybody else non-plused
|| to hear Gordon Brown on The World Tonight (28/5) talking about Oil
|| Prices in terms of a "3rd Oil Shock"?
||
|| I don't profess to understand the sub-prime market in all its
|| minutiae but I can't believe the greed of the US credit agencies can
|| be compared to the ransom (hope that's no too strong a word) that
|| the world was held to in 1973 and 1978.
||
|| Markets are (or rather should be) regulated to prevent such
|| situations as the current crisis happening whereas the 70s incidents
|| were simply a case of supply and demand - and the suppliers realised
|| they could charge what they liked and promptly did - this is
|| different.
||
|| For Brown to call it a shock didn't seem right to me.

Considering that the majority of the major oil producing countries point 
blankly 'refuse' to let auditors from western oil companies confirm that 
their estimates of reserves are genuine, then imho we should have declared 
them as being 'unreliable' suppliers and made contingency plans decades ago.