Editorial: The Global Millinery Of Financial Prophecy

"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in" - Frederick II, King of Prussia(1712 – 1786)

As oil prices gravitate around the $85 per barrel mark for yet another week in succession, financial giant, Goldman Sachs, has thrown its sizeable and outlandishly expensive hat into the ring on the future of the black stuff.

The world’s largest investment bank, holder of almost one trillion dollars of assets, has forecast that Brent crude could hit the $80 mark in Q2 of 2015 and West Texas Intermediate could fall as low as $70 per barrel in the same period. In typical hat-tossing spirit, analysts at Standard Chartered Bank have flung their own headgear into the fray, with a contrasting study that projects an energetic Q1 rebound and Brent settling at $98 per barrel.

CNBC commodities expert, Dennis Gartman, has gone one step further down the road to controversy, with one flick of his satin-lined fedora proclaiming "oil's true price has become $10/barrel…or less" in the wake of Lockheed’s recent headway in the quest for nuclear fusion.

But price woes and doom-mongering in the oil markets have been positive for some. Despite oil demand in China hitting its lowest level in 24 years, the People’s Republic snapped up 18 million barrels of cut price crude in October, its largest ever purchase monthly purchase.

As the rain of headwear intensifies in the global millinery of financial prophecy, many seem to be vying for the place of kingpin. But when does a hat become a crown? And are crowns all they are cracked up to be?....