8/8/08 The opening ceremonies of the beijing olympics, and the same/next day invasion of Georgia by Russia. Thereafter, oil prices began not to hold their lofty reaches any more, and aside from a brief panic spike up, the oil bull was over. It transformed a consolidation into a collapse. There was more going on there than met the eye. Consequences be damned - Russia couldn't be allowed to emerge resurgent as a military concern fueled by high oil prices. Ka-boom.