Former Fed chief urges caution in oil boom

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Former-Fed-chief-urges-caution-in-oil-boom-5212143.php

Former Fed chief urges caution in oil boom
By Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle : February 6, 2014 : Updated: February 6, 2014 8:08pm

HOUSTON — The surge in U.S. oil and gas output that is generating talk of energy security also could force down prices and lead to production cutbacks, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cautioned an energy-industry audience Thursday.

“Oil is coming out of our ears, so to speak,” Greenspan said in a morning speech during the Winter North American Prospect Expo at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. “The system couldn't digest it.”

Greenspan, who ran the world's most powerful central bank from 1987 to 2006, said all that supply is increasing the gap between the price of oil in the U.S. and on international markets, a situation that could cool the economy if lower prices depress activity in the oil patch.

West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, rose 46 cents to $97.84 a barrel in Thursday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. International benchmark Brent crude gained 94 cents to $107.19 on the ICE exchange in London

[House of Roberts]

1. Leave it to the man who felt his job as Fed chairman

was to maintain a certain minimum level of “worker insecurity” so there wouldn’t be “wage inflation”, to also view with disdain anything that might lower energy prices for those same insecure workers.