Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

oil, OPEC, Trump, and what's next. Oil prices are headed down for all the wrong reasons.

Oil prices dropped because of recessionary concerns when Trump's Liberation Day kicked off.

On April 2nd, crude futures were at $71.71.

On April 4th, they were at $61.99.

This drop was due to a perceived lack in demand due to Trump's trade war.

That means they expected his policies to cause a global recession. Now they're dropping again, because OPEC plus decided

to up production even with low demand. So oil is down. That means gas prices should eventually follow, right? That's good, right?

In this case, OPEC is upping production because it sees a chance to hurt U.S. oil. Most OPEC plus

nations can get their oil to market at a lower cost than U.S. corporations. When they flood the market with oil and drive down prices, it means U.S. oil producers can't compete,

and they stop drilling and pumping up oil.

That means the oil industry lays people off, and truckers who haul oil and so on.

These hits are especially true when it comes to shale oil.

Back in early April, shortly after Trump's tariff started, Shale oil boss Brian Sheffield said, quote,

The industry needs to cut immediately and hunker down to let the tariff war play out. Prices are lower today

than when he called on the industry to pull back. Meanwhile, with the U.S. scaling back production,

OPEC plus is going to take more of the global market share. One of the reasons gas prices never dropped, even though there was record oil production

in the U.S., is because it was being exported.

That trade and that money will now go to foreign countries.

If things hold, Trump will oversee a loss in U.S. oil production.

While gas prices might drop, it will come at the expense of U.S. oil and trucking jobs.

The only real good news here is that the lower oil prices might, might be low enough to help reduce some of the expected inflation from Trump's trade war. The end result

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