Spikey Oil

Drum reflects on that oil price report from last week:

[O]ne of the big problems with reaching peak oil isn't just that oil prices will go up, but that they're likely to spike up and down fairly violently...As a general rule, the world can handle high oil prices.  In fact, to the extent that high prices get us off our butts and looking for cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy, high oil prices are a good thing.  But what the world economy can't handle is constant, huge gyrations in oil prices: nearly all of our recessions since 1973 have been jump started by a sudden spike in oil prices.