Painful? Undoubtedly, but are high oil prices really such a terrible thing or are they a medicine we have to swallow? Below I briefly list some of the ways in which high oil prices could be good for us. I will go on to explore some of these points and others in brief articles to follow.1. High oil prices may have a geopolitical stabilisation effect? With oil prices already at nose bleed levels, nobody can afford to start a war over oil?
2. High oil prices while a function of supply and demand, are more representative of the real cost of oil?
3. (As a corollary of 2) Prices feed through the whole economy so that for example rising shipping costs mean the real cost of food miles etc. is increasingly felt by the consumer (see "Reversal of Globalisation")
4. High oil prices incentivize reduced and more efficient consumption of energy. Demand side response already clearly visible.
5. High oil prices make environmentally more sustainable, renewable and geopolitically less contentious new energy technologies more competitive.
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