Brig. Gen. John R. Allen, left, at a well atop a deposit of oil and natural gas in the desert of Iraq’s western Anbar Province, near Syria. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images, for The New York TimesFrom Time Magazine:
The only good economic news lately has been the collapse of oil prices. At the beginning of July, just five months ago, the price of a barrel of was more than $140. By the beginning of December, it was down to about $45. That's a drop of more than two-thirds. In the U.S., we consume about 15 million bbl. of crude a day. The saving of $95 per bbl. adds up to more than $500 billion a year. That's big--enough to bail out the auto industry 15 times.
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