1 Salmon For 1 Barrel Of Oil, Anyone?

During the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad went berserk and accused everyone except himself for bankrupting corporations in Malaysia. He tried to bailout his cronies, including his own eldest son Mirzan Mahathir’s Konsortium Perkapalan Bhd which had accumulated RM1.6 billion in debt. But there wasn’t enough money to go around.

Outrages, Mahathir blamed George Soros, the Jews, currency speculators and whatnot and lectured world leaders that currency manipulation done by Soros was far more effective at killing people than the terrorist bomb. At one point, he went through a mental breakdown and proposed international tradingthrough barter.

If the international community had listened, agreed and executed barter trading suggested by Mr. Mahathir, the world today would be quite fun and interesting. The tumbling oil price essentially means the black gold is nowcheaper than water. Heck, some even said oil is cheaper to buy than a“barrel” itself. The jokes didn’t stop here.

Cheap oil has gotten Canadians scratching their heads. In some parts of Canada, a barrel of oil is cheaper than a few cauliflowers. The price of cauliflower in Canada has risen from CAD $2.50 (US$1.77; £1.23; RM7.55) to around CAD $8 (US$5.67; £3.95; RM24.15), tripling in price. This simply means you can bring 5 pieces of cauliflowers and exchange them for a barrel of oil.

Norway is another country which would be fun to do barter with the present low prices of oil. Last year, Norway exported salmon worth a staggering NOK 47.7 billion (US$5.48 billion; £3.82 billion; RM23.36 billion). Thanks to this commodity, a Norwegian can bring along one standard 4.5-kg salmon fishand exchange it for 1-barrel of crude oil (*grin*).

As the seafood-industry news site iLaks.no reported this month, it’s booming times for the Norwegian aquaculture industry where salmon fish trades at NOK 65 per kilo. That’s about NOK 292 (US$33.54; £23.38; RM143) for one 4.5-kg salmon. With today’s crude WTI and Brent oil at US$30.59 and US$31.09 a barrel respectively, you can barter one salmon fish for a barrel of crude oil, with some loose change. -financetwitter