The Oil Companies Must Have Been Shivering with Fear in the Mid-90s

According to Richard at Hyscience:

Color me clueless and confused, especially after my post yesterday calling for a boycott of Exxon Mobil - which many readers thought was a less-than-stellar and clueless idea, but I'll never figure out or understand why it is that "market fuel prices" always seem to suddenly drop for one reason or another (read excuse) just when public outrage seems to reach critical mass (read mass outrage).

Yes, once again as in the past, speculators and/or "The Oil God" - wherever he or she resides, has decided that there are reasons for market fuel prices to drop - in a quick 48 hours.

If it's only fear of public outrage that restrains oil prices, Exxon etc. must have been bleeping in their pants in 1998.

Come to think of it, the same sentiment has been expressed elsewhere:

Fear is the only practical means to deal with people.—Kip Chalmers (in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand)