1. We do not speak about “demand” but about consumption (demand is an unobservable neoclassical category; it has to do with the “desires” of buyers on which we know nothing). The consumption of crude oil is not very responsive to its relative price.

2. The oil companies are interested in profit, not consumption, and profit is affected mostly by price. So, no, the oil companies do not get shot when the price of crude rises. On the contrary (Figure 9 p. 40 in the Epilogue).

3. Would it be better for the oil companies to control crude oil directly? Not really. The politics of the oil business is complex, and goes way beyond the issue of “cartels”. We describe the history and nature of this political economy in great detail in Ch. 6 of our Hebrew book (http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/archive/00000005/) and Ch. 5 of our English book (http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/archive/00000008/).

I think that we are not on the same wavelength. Our book develops an approach that rejects the traditional separation between “politics” and “economics.” There is no sense debating these issues unless you are familiar with our broader argument.