Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

A recent article in SLATE bore the questioning headline, "What happens if oil doesn't recover?". The question is a timely one. Oil prices have taken a beating of late. I have a precis of the reasons why in a recent post here about Berkshire Hathaway and Occidental Petroleum, and won't recap that. The brief dip of near-month futures into negative prices -- companies were paying good money to cancel deliveries of the stuff -- drew a lot of attention. But let's look at the big picture to fix the size of the drop. Through December 2019 the price of West Texas Intermediate rose slowly and, it seemed, steadily. It went from $55.86 per barrel when the month began to $61.40 at year's end. In January, before most of the western hemisphere even knew the word "Wuhan," the price began a decline. WTI ended January at $51.56.  The decline became much more dramatic in February, down to $44.76. In March, it fell off a cliff, ending that month at $20.48, only a...

  I just want to record here a statistical fact so I won't forget it down the road.  I wrote a story recently for AllAboutAlpha concerning the different prices of "Brent crude" and WTI crude. Brent crude is sold through ICE Futures Europe: WTI through Nymex. Incidental to that story, I also referred to the fact that quantities of Brent crude oil are defined in "cargoes." I didn't answer the question: how many barrels in a "cargo"? Anyway, I'll do so here. Cargo size [600,000 barrels (95,000 cubic meter)] Related facts: The ICE Futures Europe symbol for Brent crude futures is B, also traded on the NYMEX, with the symbol BZ. It was originally traded on the open outcry International Petroleum Exchange in London, but since 2005 has been traded on the electronic Intercontinental Exchange, known as ICE. One contract equals 1,000 barrels (159 m3). Contracts are quoted in U.S. dollars