The ideological folderol won't help but if it makes you all feel better.
The new output is primarily a North American phenomenon from non-conventional sources. $150 oil and strip mining of regs mobilized a vast amount of capital for high cost production. Much of which is rapidly heading to where money goes to die. (Chesapeake going down this month, perhaps- by far the biggest casualty yet).
As far as the "free market" goes, there's actually rarely ever been one in oil. The Texas Railway Commission and then OPEC regulated supply through most of the relatively brief Age of Oil.
Whatcha got here is a free market. Which is always right, right?
Worth noting that outside of N. American unconventional oil, the rest of the world has not quite been able to expand production even with huge financial incentives to do so. It is tough to keep two different concepts in mind simultaneously- particularly if you don't like either one- but still worth disciplining yourselves to do.
Interesting times ahead. I don't think anybody knows- probably including them- but I've seen suggestions that Russia runs out of cash in 12 months or less. That's probably sooner than the Saudis and sooner than US production pulls back a lot- massive losses are going to run through our system but I think it is big enough to absorb them.
The ME could blow up at any time so I definitely don't want to be short oil here and wouldn't argue with anybody covering all or part of their usage here even if it will likely go lower.
