Falling oil prices - OPEC's emergency meeting

As consumer confidence falls and aggregate demand drops, so do oil prices. Oil prices have fallen 40% since its peak of $147 per barrel in Mid-July. "The OPEC basket, a blend of OPEC crudes, dropped through the psychologically important $80-per-barrel level, to $77.38, on Oct. 9." OPEC has called for an emergency meeting in Vienna this November on Oct. 9, but now has just moved its emergency meeting even earlier, to Oct 24th. Public is eager to see whether an output cut will happen, and to what extent it will be. OPEC is a so-called cartel, containing the Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, Iran and Venezuela. According to "Behind OPEC's November meeting in Vienna" in the BusinessWeek, Venezuela president has just moved to the Saudi Arabia's side. So now the two main players of this meeting will be the Iranians, who want to have a huge cut (they favor a $100-per-barrel floor prices), and the Saudis, who believe that such a cut is absurd and will make the current economy even worse.
If you are interested, here are a few articles that you can have a look at.


The Economist: OPEC's emergency meeting



The BusinessWeek: Behind OPEC's November meeting in Vienna