Oil hit a low of $84.19 a barrel on Thursday, the lowest price we’ve seen since October of 2007.

Prices for crude seemed to be about to run out of control, when just this summer, the price of oil had reached an all time high at $147.27 a barrel. This is an almost 43 per cent drop in price since July, according to a financial times article I found yesterday.

Something that the article also noted, which I found interesting, was that the oil price plunge was not mirrored by other commodities’ price drops. In fact, the price of certain agricultural commodities and base metals actually rose.

Something I posted on a few weeks ago is related to the primary driver in the price of oil being Wall Street instead of OPEC as it used to be. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that oil prices have experienced such a swing in the past six months. And of course this coupled with the uncertainty in the financial markets for the past year.

Any additional thoughts on why the price of oil has swung so dramatically the past year? I would also love to hear more about other drivers of oil in the economy.

Article Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc297918-9664-11dd-9dce-000077b07658.html