Spikes and troughs

Only real supply-side intervention has stopped oil-price volatility. But those days are gone, argues Bob McNally's new book

If you need an example of a market best not left to the invisible hand, oil is it. Its price gyrations can destroy producers or hamstring consumer economies. And yet "extreme volatility… is an intrinsic feature of the oil industry," writes Bob McNally in a new book.* Everyone wants price stability—the foundation on which to make investment decisions and plan economies. But the market, says McNally, president of the Rapidan Group and a former energy advisor to the White House, isn't about to yield it. Forget the deal between Opec and non-Opec producers—Saudi Arabia's recent decision to cut oil output is not going to bring the prolonged period of calm everyone seeks. Since 2014, notes McNally,