Re: oil crises

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Aldo Balardini asks me several questions:
>How do you define the price of oil? <
 
the same way most people do.
 
>Cyrus Bina is the only one so far to have attempted to explain the 1970's oil crisis using the standard interpretation of Marx's theory of rent. <
 
I was thinking of his analysis (though I haven't read it in awhile), since Marx's rent theory suggests that the price of oil is determined partly by demand (unlike, say, in manufacturing). 
 
>Do you agree with Bina that cost conditions in the US, the highest cost region in the international oil, determine the the "world" price of oil?  <
 
it depends on demand. If demand is sufficiently low, cost conditions in the US are irrelevant. If it's high, then we might see a higher-cost producer as determining. 
Jim D.