If aliens came from outer space and brought us oil...
If they said "here you go, this thing you need.. this thing that takes time and effort and resources to pull out of the ground, here's a bunch of it.. have it"...
would this be
(a) good and helpful for the economy
(b) bad and hurtful for the economy
If you answered (b), you may well be a dumbdumb Keynesian.
Baha. Or probably not, but you probably don't care that much and hear their weirdass theories and assume the smart man in the nice suit is saying things that make sense.
Oil seems very political, so the fact that there's a "price war" going on maybe represents some underlying hostility. Or who knows what. And maybe they engage in the price war because of a weakening economy or uncertain times. (Certainly, price naturally falls as people consume less during a weakened economy.)
So price falling and all that's going on with oil may certainly indicate general economic problems.
But it's very, very important for your mental clarity and economic sanity and whatnot to realize cheaper oil is not itself a problem.
It's the result of problems, and the aspect of oil being cheaper is a saving grace.
[I'm not an expert on all these details, but it also may be the case that oil was unnaturally high and there were too many oil companies in the first place. If the Saudis can produce oil for cheap and undercut everyone but prior to now they just.... didn't. Well, whether they were bribed or just didn't realize what they could do (go with door A), it was always the case that they could start doing this. That the actual cost of bringing oil into the world is lower than we thought it was. So oil companies who depend on high prices were always sort of fictitious and bound to go away.
And oh, the horror of paying less to heat your house and deliver goods and go on vacation etc.
The problem is all the backroom wheeling and dealings and propping oil artificially high for so long, and causing the industry to evolve around something that isn't sustainable. People who are able to produce a thing we need for cheap is not a problem. It's a good thing. Other things surrounding oil are probably problems.]
In short: If you worry a lot about having more resources for cheaper, you should take that as a clue to question the sanity of your belief system. Lol.
I feel kind of bad for the armchair Keynesians. It's like they think they're learning an intellectual discipline, but really they're just being mindfucked by people who have a vested interest in the status quo / business as usual.
suckers 😕