Pundits and demographers are having a field day analysing the effect of Alberta's $7-billion energy-generated surplus, raising questions about how the province will use its windfall while not creating jealousy among the country's cash-strapped provinces, or worse yet, attracting almost all the inhabitants of the rest of the country, leaving a vast uninhabited wasteland in the East. And the windfall may grow bigger, given the bold headlines proclaiming the imminent arrival of $100 a barrel oil. One can successfully search Google for that phrase, but there is a distinct shortage of analysis available that would indicate what kind of world we will be looking at if/when oil prices reach that level. We invite you to join us this week to consider what will happen to the world's economies and, closer to home, to North American consumption patterns and trade. In case you have been marching with the Penguins in Antarctica and oblivious to Oil news, we include below some samples and useful links for your pre-Wednesday Night perusal. http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1226.asporld is shortly running out of is its ability to produce high-quality cheap and economically extractable oil on demand." http://www.oildecline.com/ acted like a tax on consumers, leaving them less money to spend on other goods. The fact that America's economy has been able to shrug off higher oil prices mainly as a result of a housing and mortgage bubble is hardly a comforting thought. The Economist Aug 25 http://www.energybulletin.net/8381.html