Then one day he was shooting at some food, And up through the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. As the story goes, after striking oil, old Jed Clampett loaded up his truck and moved to Beverly (Hills, that is). In 2016, striking oil might not earn Jed a new mansion in Beverly Hills (or even a duplex with tandem parking in the Valley). Supply is wildly outstripping demand and the price of oil has dropped to its lowest point in more than a decade. That’s good news, right? Well, not necessarily. Cheap oil is endangering banks, raising fears of global instability, and is being partly blamed for the stock market slump. From The Economist: Who’s afraid of cheap oil? (Bottom line: Jed would be better off coding a photo sharing app.)

+ The NYT provides a simple way to understand the cost of falling oil prices in Canada: The 8-Dollar Cauliflower.

+ How cheap gas complicates long-term urban planning.