>I'm really not sure I want to read any more binaprose (that was *after*
>you broke it up?), but where does Bina lay out this "proof" that the oil
>market is completely competitive? He thinks the whole quota system is an
>epiphenomenon?
He cited a book, The Economics of the Oil Crisis (1985). He's got several longish articles on the topic too, but I don't have any cites handy.
As I recall the argument, all the various price-fixing schemes were rendered impotent and obsolete once oil started trading freely on spot and futures markets. Speaking for myself, I'd agree that OPEC has some influence on prices - it's not the passive price taker of the textbooks - but it's limited, cheating is rampant, and non-OPEC exporters have a growing market share.
Doug