OPEC gets tested

The latest example that the powers of OPEC are exaggerated--the drop of the price of a barrel of oil to below $60--that's a roughly 80-90 dollar drop since about July. As soon as oil gets as low as it is now, OPEC members start to reach for each other's throats. There are many lovely things about lower oil prices--one of them is the decreasing ability of political payoffs that most of the OPEC member states rely upon to keep their corrupt regimes afloat. And speaking of corrupt regimes, somewhere in Venezuela Hugo Chavez is sweating it big time--sweet.