Economics, society and oil

Been catching up on a couple of US peak oil blogs. Take a look at James Howard Kunstler, who wrote The Long Emergency and John Michael Greer. Both take a fairly depressing view of society and its refusal to face the fact that oil is becoming a bit of a problem...

We have built the last 150 years of Western civilisation on and un-endless supply of cheap oil. Ignoring the impact that this is having on our climate and currently the Gulf of Mexico, cheap oil will end soon and the key question is what will happen?

A cursory understanding of our economy will show the deep connection between economics and oil. Looking at the FTSE 100 and the Dow Jones over the last 5 years and the price of oil shows a remarkable correlation and we need to begin to understand what the causal relationship between these two is.

FTSE 100 last 5 years:

Dow Jones last 5 years:

Oil Price last 5 years: