Al Jazeera: Thursday's OPEC meeting in Vienna was widely billed as the most important in years. OPEC ministers decided to resist calls to cut their oil production in response to the fall in oil prices since June. After three years of holding steady around $110 a barrel, oil had dropped below $80. Within minutes of their decision, the price fell by another $5.
This was in large part a contest between OPEC and US frackers for power over the oil market. With the new technology of hydraulic fracturing, US oil...