Forbes and Pickens on peak oil

Here's something for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday Bloomberg posted some interview video clips from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. Among the guests: Steve Forbes and T. Boone Pickens, both of whom stopped to chat with Bloomberg's Brian Sullivan about the economy and rising energy prices.

It's not everyday you get to field back to back interviews with the likes of Forbes and Pickens, but what's especially interesting about these clips is that the two took the opportunity to argue their respective side of the "peak oil" debate.

Judging by their arguments, I'd say Steve Forbes is firmly in the "cornucopian" camp, while Pickens believes that we have reached a worldwide peak in oil production.

In responding to Forbes' assertion that market forces will solve our oil production concerns, Pickens hits the nail on the head by answering that the free market will take care of the energy problem (by shifting demand to new cost-effective energy sources), but it will not be able to create new deposits of oil in the ground.

Other notable points: Steve Forbes' views on the dollar and inflation. I was far more impressed with his views on fiat money than his take on increasing oil production. But that's me. Check it out for yourself.