Global demand for oil, natural gas and coal is now and will continue to be driven by demographic and economic trends in Asia, not in Europe and North America. The resulting large increases in demand for these fuels, which will probably become evident no later than 2022, must be satisfied. If government policies and investor reticence and/or lack of investment capital result in insufficient supply to meet this burgeoning demand, prices will rise significantly. While that, in turn, will dampen demand growth, it will yield very large profits to producers and provide them with the cash flow needed to expand reserves and production with less reliance on traditional sources of lending. In such a future, the institutional investors can, of course, refuse to join in the profit-taking. I doubt they will.