The second issue, the one of the myth that this lowering of prices is in the interest of the common man will show itself for what it is when economic agents have to face rising crude prices again. If educational and informational campaigns are conducted right, economic agents will see the rationale for high prices and can better engineer production and other systems so that they can face the onslaught of the coming higher prices.  

A floor for crude derivatives’ prices is a must. By alternately raising and lowering prices for energy, agents do not get proper signals and stimuli upon which to shape their economic and social lives. The ones who get hurt the most in this vicious oscillating game are the most vulnerable sections of society. It is sinister to perpetuate a myth in their name. 

Judging from their public pronouncements and actions, almost no policy-maker, whether of the executive or legislative branch, seems to be aware of the deep relationship between energy quantum availability, their relative and absolute prices and economic, social and political development. Few have put it better than Stuart Kauffman: “Life is a vast Monopoly game, with energy the ultimate currency, and the sun our banker of last resort.” Central bankers would do well to heed that reality while they attempt to boost economies, following in the footsteps of Greenspan and his cohorts. 

The writer is a Hyderabad-based economist and oil watcher

express@expressindia.com