The Quest Chapter 4
The Jakarta Syndrome & The Shock
Consider the following questions:
- How many times is a similar syndrome illustrated through out history?
- When comparing the shock illustrations over the semester, how many different reasons spark the shocks?
This section explains more details on the Jakarta Syndrome and how it applies to the oil industry. OPEC is striving to balance the market by controlling their production. Opposite goal of their oil embargos when they were striving to give their customers a old fashioned Rockefeller “good sweating” until they changed their actions. Here, OPEC is being proactive and trying to keep a balance in the world markets.
However, the future was not as the OPEC members anticipated - There was now too much oil! This could be compared to when in the United States there was fear of running out of oil, and the Black Giant struck and flooded the market. The price drops, and the oil exporting countries learn another valuable lesson about increasing production. The lessons continued to encourage efficiency, and using technology to the best advantage by merging companies.
This can be brought even closer to our current time with the historical collapse in the price of oil from $140 per barrel in 2008 to a drop to around $50 per barrel in 2009 also brought on by a flood of oil in the world market. The price of oil continually fluxuates but not usually this drastic of a change.