Though the U.S. shale oil boom of the past several years has led to a renewed surge of domestic oil production as well as an oil glut, crude oil prices have remained stubbornly high. There are a growing number of reasons, however, why crude oil prices are likely to finally experience a bust in the not-too-distant future. I avoid making firm predictions about the oil market because there are so many conflicting variables that affect oil prices, from supply and demand, geopolitics (which is inherently unpredictable), and the global monetary environment, but it is important to be aware of several factors that have a high probability of pushing crude oil prices lower in the next couple of years. Oil refinery (Photo credit: Dirigentens) 1) The unwinding of record speculative bullish bets To prop up the global economy after the 2008 financial crisis, global central banks dramatically cut interest rates […]