And of course, who contributed largely to the increased global demand?
We did, naturally. Pursuit of a manifest destiny of spreading American-style culture to all the "dark places in the world" (a quote from the days of British imperialism, if you'll excuse me) we've done all we can to make other, less "civilized" places more and more like us...which means they are now competing for the same resources that we have previously dominated.
Still, the increased demand hasn't necessarily created a "shortage" in the sense that supply can't keep up...it's just created more of a seller's market, which oil producers are taking full advantage of at the expense of the consumer. They can produce plenty of oil to meet the demand, but why go the extra stretch to do it when they can produce the same or less, charge more, and have more global consumers to compete for their business, driving their profit margins through the roof? So what if the American economy fails...there are now plenty of other customers to fill the demand.
