Residents of the Middle East are used to attracting the derision of the rest of the globe’s inhabitants with their outlandish conspiracy theories. Local governments’ tendency to offer limited justifications for their policy decisions inadvertently contributes to cloak-and-dagger speculation about unremarkable phenomena. Since July 2014, in the domain of oil analysis, the conspiracy theory shoe has switched to the other foot. In an attempt to explain the 70 percent decline in oil prices, leading media outlets have taken to publishing analyses awash with bizarre theories about the root cause.
