Matthieu Favas
speaker
190 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 12 Aug
Matthieu Favas’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So when a shock happens, demand can adapt in a way that we didn't think was possible.
It's also because in recent years there's been this phenomenon in China called involution, whereby there was overcapacity across a lot of industries.
And the result from that is that there were stocks, not just in oil and crude oil and oil products, but also things like
plastics or synthetic fibers.
But the thing to say is like all stocks, they're finite.
So you're right, at some point China will run into the problem that it won't be able to draw on these buffers.
But for now, showing that for a few months at least it can survive a big shock.
So that's an excellent question because typically when China manages to corner big local markets that we care about, we don't like it so much.
And that's because China has in recent history used that power to bully other countries.
But in this case, it does look like China is on our side.
It's on the side of the old consumers.
Because if you
Consider the alternative, for four decades the oil markets have been I wouldn't say managed, but I've been under the influence of OPEC, the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, which includes West Gulf states, Russia, Iran.
And their goal has been to keep prices high by cutting output.
Or sometimes they've flooded the markets to try and crush the competition.
These are all
anti-competitive behaviors that we typically don't like so much at The Economist as a liberal newspaper.
So we prefer when, like China, they are responsive to market signals.
So if the prices are high then they start raising stocks.
If prices are low then they start buying more.
Showing 61–80 of 190 · page 4 of 10
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