Francisco Blanch, a Merrill Lynch Commodity Strategist said that “A temporary drop below $25 a barrel is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC cuts are required. In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations.”

Other experts think the price of oil could drop even lower. Joe Petrowski, Gulf Oil CEO, believes that the price of oil could sink as low as $20 a barrel by early next year.

Tetsu Emori, a commodity markets fund manager at ASTMAZ Futures Co. in Tokyo said that “The damage to the economy by the financial turmoil is much bigger than the market initially thought. The economic data now is much worse than what we expected a few months ago.”

Dr. James Carafano of The Heritage Foundation has stated that:

“Today we have missile defense interceptors in Alaska, and we have them in California. And if North Korea fired a missile at us, we could shoot it down. But if we went by the ‘Obama rules’ and said we’re not going to field anything until it’s perfect, then today America would be defenseless against a North Korean threat. So that just doesn’t pass the common sense test.