But if owners of oil reserves think that prices will fall in the long run, they gain an incentive to explore for oil and expand production now in order to sell as much oil as possible before the fall. The resulting supply surge drives down prices, reinforces expectations of further declines, and produces the inverse of a speculative bubble: a collapse in prices.
但如果油田的所有者们认为油价在长期来看会呈下跌之势，他们现在便会有动力开发石油并扩大生产以求在跌价之前卖出更多的石油。随之而来的石油供应增加会使油价下跌，从而强化进一步跌价的预期，并导致与投机泡沫全然相反的结果：油价崩溃。