[sickoflibs]

RE :”What fraction of the price increase in oil comes from monetary inflation? What fraction for demand? Assuming that most of the price increase in oil comes from monetary inflation, what causes the monetary inflation to affect oil more than other products?”

What demand is increasing? We have 10% unemployment and we are the main consumers of the world.

For one thing oil (energy) and food are hedges against future dollar devaluation because everyone expects them to go up the highest as before. So they are the canary in the coal mine. They will be consumed as the prices rise.

Under Bush it was energy, food and housing too, but the housing bubble truly caused an long term over-supply of that unlike food an energy.

Remember that the fed is trying to devalue the dollar

[secretagent]

“Developing world” demand increasing:

The developing world led the rebound, according to the report, with gasoline demand rising 8% in China and 11% in India.

Worldwide, oil demand is poised to grow by 2.5 million barrels a day in 2010 — one of the largest growth rates on record, according to the Wood Mackenzie report. Eighty-five percent of that growth is expected to come from the developing world.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/10/news/economy/oil_demand_prices/index.htm