But we did what the market told us to do not long ago!

Sir Martin Wolf tells us that “The market sets high oil prices to tell us what to do” May 14, but we should not forget that the same market, less than a decade ago, priced the barrel of oil under 10$, and according to some pundits it was heading for 5$, and that in fact many of our current problems are derived from doing exactly what those low prices told us to do.

Martin Wolf also quotes the International Energy Agency in order to establish a case for extremely tight oil markets but what was this agency saying just a few years ago? Why are they to be more credible now?

What Martin Wolf does not mention are the alternatives to the short term markets in oil and that some long term take up contracts between producing and consuming countries, based on some reasonable in between prices, could create stability and reduce volatility in the oil markets for the benefit of all...less the short term speculators of course.