All of us prayed, some of us wept, and some of us thought it would never happen.

But check out this headline in The New York Times : Oil Prices Slip Below $70 a Barrel. I was almost brought to tears with it this morning. So, why now?

That is obvious. The recent downturn in the world economy has reduced spending by all customers, the most consequential would be the decreased spending of the shopping crazy the United States. With people less keen to drive out to the shops and restaurants, they obviously drive less (and they probably drive less by making less trips to the grocery and going to, say, a closer movie theater) and then ipso facto: demand decreases leading to price decreases.

This is good all around for those of us who can limit luxury trips but still need to drive to, for example, school and work.

Now, who isn’t happy about this: OPEC. The organization of oil exporting nations, which features most major producers, is worried about the continuing decline of oil. Most OPEC nations, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Venezuela, do not oil to drop below $80 a barrels. Such a decline would great hurt their economic growth.

In the last three weeks, oil has dropped $40 and since the July high of over $140 oil has declined in price by 50%. Less pray for even more declines.