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According to the British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy, 2013 , global coal reserves declined in the decade ending 2012: Figure 1. Proved coal reserves . Proved reserves of coal are generally taken to be those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainly can be recovered in the future from known deposits under existing economic and operating conditions. If we look at supply and demand factors in the decline, we can see that: a) Coal price has grown significantly in the decade ending 2012 1 :   Figure 2.  Prices in US Dollars per tonne . b) Coal consumption has also grown significantly worldwide 2 : Figure 3. Coal consumption by region . c) The price of substitutes (i.e. Natural Gas) has also grown. Not so in North America though, but if we look at the world trend it is growing 3 : Figure 4. Natural gas prices . Therefore if the rule of supply and demand worked we would see increase i...

Not long ago I published an article  Economic Lessons - Consumer Influence on Price  with an intent to show that not everywhere rules of supply and demand work as per the textbooks and as per wishes of some people. I have discussed this topic with many people and majority seem to still believe in supply-demand mantra. Today I stumbled upon the article by BT Financial Group -  4 surprising facts about the property market : "Supply and demand pricing rules don’t always work with property".

Have been reflecting on some economy principles and rules for a while and here's what still doesn't came through to me in regard to Supply and Demand equilibrium and price results: How do consumers influence the price? Say when we come to the grocery store or a super market we don't bargain, right? Also with big purchases like furniture, expensive electronics, cars or real-estate we don't do many of those frequently enough to influence the price. There is another part of economy - B2B  where "consumer" or one side of the relationship sometimes can influence the price and sometimes can't. Very often in case of businesses the procurement decisions are not made by one person and not always fair or economically efficient.  Or I am missing something here? I just thought the Demand part of this system should "belong" to the consumer, hence the idea that the buyer should influence the equilibrium somehow. However, to me usually the consumer has ...