(27. September) Lars Schall: Maarten, you have co-written a book recently with your friend Oskar Slingerland, The Misunderstood Crisis with the sub-title It’s the energy stupid. Why the title?

Maarten van Mourik: Because we have this financial crisis and everybody goes on and on about how we have to get out of this subprime crisis and everything that happened to the banks, but we believe that the crisis is only partly financial and mainly due to an energy problem and more in particular to the problem of having access to cheap and profitable oil.

LS: Yes, let’s discuss that in more detail, but first: How important is oil?

MvM: Oil is very important. People give different estimates that it might amount somewhere between 30 or 60 percent of global GDP, but basically oil is everywhere and roundabout 95 percent of our transportation needs are covered by oil, and then obviously just look at your clothes that you’re wearing, it’s oil.