"Look no further than last week's OPEC meeting in Vienna. Oil ministers declined to increase production despite a fairly obvious case for doing so. Not only were oil prices fluttering just above $100 a barrel, but the United States is either in or near a recession and much of the rest of the world faces a noticeable economic slowdown. The OPEC ministers were unmoved. Indeed, they indicated that they might actually reduce production if weak demand—presumably reflecting weak economies—threatens to depress prices. Not good.
What's wrong is that a fall of oil prices is one of the mechanisms by which a recession or economic slowdown corrects itself. Lower prices for gasoline, home heating oil and diesel fuel improve consumer purchasing power. They muffle inflation and increase confidence. In this sense, they're an important "automatic stabilizer" for a faltering economy. If the automatic stabilizer is disarmed—or, worse, transformed into an automatic "destabilizer"—then the slowdown or recession may get worse."
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