Is OPEC Dead?

You'd think that OPEC would be laughing it up right now – all the way to the bank. With oil prices at a lofty $100 a barrel, OPEC's oil exporters are sucking in petrodollars on a grand scale. But all is not happy in the world's most infamous cartel. A meeting of the 12 OPEC states last week broke down in acrimony after a Saudi-backed proposal to boost oil output met fierce resistance from a half dozen members, including Iran, Libya and Venezuela. The conference ended without an agreement. The Saudi oil minister called it “one of the worst meetings we ever had.”