$1.99?

It's gotta be messing with the economy in a bad way when it gets this low. Saudi's are hoping it damages or destroys US companies so they can regain the prices they want to see once again. Low is good to a point.
There's some price for a barrel of oil that large percentages of U.S. production is not profitable. That price will fluctate over time but U.S. domestic production costs are high because all the low hanging fruit was picked GENERATIONS ago. So those companies dependent on a $50 a barrel price will not survive and theiir lenders are stuck holding the bag. Oil will rise back up above that price fairly soon I expect but there's no hard time frame when that has to happen.
That's not a scheme hatched from Arabia. Look at the price of natual gas, coal, copper, steel, aluminum..........There's these financial manias the world goes through where everyone jumps into the same investments and piles more and more money into those fields until it all collapses upon itself------basically, because even the world runs out of suckers at some point.
All those "investment" manias thrive on the concept of the Bigger Fool. $150 a barrel oil was a MANIA------a BUBBLE. You can get rich buying swamp land in Florida so long as you find a Bigger Fool to buy it from you for more than you initially paid. All through history these bubbles pop. Somebody gets left holding the bag and those victims stand around in disbelef pointing fingers in a ciircular firing squad manner. Kinda funny when you're on the outside looking in.