Oil Prices May Stay Low ‘Forever’

Imagine a Detroit auto executive driving a Japanese car. That’s kind of what it felt like when the chief executive officer of one of the world’s biggest oil companies said in a Bloomberg TV interview that his next car would be electric. Ben Van Beurden, head of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, will drive a plug-in Mercedes-Benz S500e in September, giving up his diesel, Bloomberg reports. It reflects the many changes Shell and its competitors have made in response to dramatic shifts in markets over the past few years. Oil boomed, peaking near $150 a barrel, then within two years went bust, down to the $30s, and is now hovering around $50. “We are getting fit for the $40s, with the way we are going,” Van Beurden said, referring to oil prices. Shell is operating under the assumption that crude will be “lower forever,” he said.

Jeff Bezos. It all started in a garage with a dream of selling books online. Seems obvious now. Amazon shares surged this week to give the 53-year-old CEO a higher net worth than the previous title holder, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, 61. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Thursday afternoon listed Bezos with a net worth of $90.9 billion, $200 million more than Gates. But then Amazon shares fell, and Bezos gave back the crown. Temporarily, perhaps?