The oil price war harms chances of international cooperation in a crisis | Editorial
(The Guardian Russia)

Saudi Arabia and Russia are collaborating in a beggar-thy-neighbour battle for share of the marketOil has a nasty habit of featuring in global recessions. At the start of 1973 the global economy was celebrating a quarter of a century of strong growth. By the end of the year the golden age had come to a shuddering halt after a cartel of oil producing nations - Opec - drove up the cost of crude in response to western support for Israel in the Yom Kippur war.A spike in oil prices has been a feature of every subsequent global downturn - until this one. This time what´s been notable about the cost of crude is that it has been coming down fast, hitting levels last week not seen since the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Continue reading...