2026 market predictions (and other werewolf related activities)

[TLM]

The fact many people tend to forget when speaking about the dollar as world's reserve currency is the huge amount of them tied into crude and less crude oil. That is the reason why US is fighting to retain Dollar as the reference currency for oil.

 

[Falstaff]

Stop, stop stop.

You are getting things totally wrong here.

WE DO NOT HAVE A WEREWOLF PROBLEM IN BRITAIN.

The only shapeshifters we have are the Selkies, and some (not all) witches.

And politicians, , the worst of the worst....

 

[TeeDee]

The fact many people tend to forget when speaking about the dollar as world's reserve currency is the huge amount of them tied into crude and less crude oil. That is the reason why US is fighting to retain Dollar as the reference currency for oil.

???

Who was forgetting?

 

[TLM]

Who was forgetting?

No one in particular, around post #18 somebody made a question about The Buck.

 

[demented dale]

What has the US dollar got to do with werewolves? xxx

 

[Chris]

What has the US dollar got to do with werewolves? xxx

Someone’s never seen American Werewolf in London…

 

[TeeDee]

What has the US dollar got to do with werewolves? xxx

There is a sort of connection... Both from the Old World.
< Although I suspect you can make anything fit if you try hard enough and take creative measures. >

https://www.etymonline.com/word/

dollar

monetary unit or standard of value in the U.S. and Canada," 1550s, daler, originally in English the name of a large, silver coin of varying value in the German states, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Sankt Joachimsthal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale. The spelling had been modified to dollar by 1600.

Werewolf - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the Middle Ages. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs spread to the Western Hemisphere with colonialism.

Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland, especially the Valais and Vaud, in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.

File:GermanWoodcut1722.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

 

[TLM]

Slightly convoluted but about par on this thread ...

 

[demented dale]

you lot are all nuts. great stuff xxxx

 

[Broch]

The moon is waning now; we'll be alright in a day or so.

 

[TLM]

After some changes in legislation there are reports that some 50 wolves have been shot in the last week or so. So far no reports on suspicious changes in species after death ...

 

[Tengu]

See? I told you, no problem.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I mean what on Earth is oil doing all the way down at just $61? That’s crazy considering the geopolitical tensions at the moment, the recent spate of oil tanker hijackings and two of the worlds biggest oil producers, Iran and Venezuela looking likely to get bombed sometime this year.

OPEC has been pumping, pumping, pumping with the goal of keeping market share, rather than maximizing profit. The world's consumption of oil is relatively low at the moment, in historical terms, and there is a consumer debt crunch in the US (and a consumption problem in China) on the horizon. This will keep both spot and future oil prices low.

Venezuela's oil industry is ridiculous; the country may well be sitting on the world's biggest reserves, but its industry has suffered decades of mismanagement and incompetence.

If Trump confiscates the whole shebang and hands out over to the likes of Chevron, it will take a decade to get up to full production, by which time the American banks will have had time to yet again break the world finance system and for the rest of the world to fix it again with massive QE. But by that time the world will be less dependent on oil both as a fuel and as an input for the chemical industry.

 

[TeeDee]

The moon is waning now; we'll be alright in a day or so.

I wonder if as Werewolves age if they also get affected by the biology of time?

A Lunapause ? Were they either can't skin shift or get annoyinging stuck in the one state of being?

Shame Pratchett isn't around to ask any more, He would have the answer and possibly a good book from that.

 

[TeeDee]

If Trump confiscates the whole shebang and hands out over to the likes of Chevron, it will take a decade to get up to full production, by which time the American banks will have had time to yet again break the world finance system and for the rest of the world to fix it again with massive QE. But by that time the world will be less dependent on oil both as a fuel and as an input for the chemical industry.

Can I ask how you know this ? Honest question - I thought their ability was present in terms of producing Crude , it was just the refinement and processing that was the issue.

Have they not been exporting crude to other countries in volume over the last decade?

 

[Keith_Beef]

Can I ask how you know this ? Honest question - I thought their ability was present in terms of producing Crude , it was just the refinement and processing that was the issue.

Have they not been exporting crude to other countries in volume over the last decade?

Venezuela exports a lot of crude oil, but nowhere near its potential maximum.

I used to work in companies connected with oil prospection and characterisation; I had a few colleagues from Venezuela over the years ago who told me about the state of the industry out there.

But it's also well documented. For example Wikipedia has several articles in the subject.

"The country was once one of the world's largest exporters of oil. Oil production peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s
...
Since [1999], PDVSA [Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.] has not demonstrated any capability to bring new oil fields onstream since nationalizing heavy oil projects in the Orinoco Petroleum Belt"

History of the Venezuelan oil industry - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Here's another article from 11 December 2025.

"Venezuela’s oil industry is a shadow of what it once was, hurt by decades of authoritarian leadership, corruption, underinvestment and crippling sanctions from the United States.

"Venezuela now produces an estimated 1 million barrels per day, about a third of its peak production of 3 million barrels 25 years ago, said Patrick Duddy, a former ambassador to Venezuela under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“They have immense reserves,” he said, “But their oil sector is in general, and has been for years, dilapidated and underfunded.”"

5 reasons the oil industry is watching Venezuela

In announcing the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off Venezuela on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said of its crude, “We’ll keep it, I guess.”

www.eenews.net

There are many more out there from The Economist and Reuters, among others.

 

[HorseGuy]

Can I ask how you know this ? Honest question - I thought their ability was present in terms of producing Crude , it was just the refinement and processing that was the issue.

Have they not been exporting crude to other countries in volume over the last decade?

I was under the impression that Venezuela has been exporting unrefined crude oil to China. Don't ask me what the source of this information was though because I can't remember. Actually I probably dreampt it during a full moon when I has having one of my 'funny turns' knowing me.

I wonder if the BoE will now be returning Venezuela's gold now that Maduro has gone? Previously that was the reason the used for refusing to give it back.