Problems in the U.S. wholesale gasoline market have played a relatively minor role in the
gasoline price increases of the last few years. But this is one part of the problem that we
created all by ourselves and can fix all by ourselves.
Category Archives: energy
Another exciting week in oil markets
Ethanol clouds senators’ judgment
The urge to be seen as doing something about our energy problems is giving rise to
legislation that has the potential for more harm than good. The ethanol amendment approved by
the Senate yesterday is a case in point.
What is Saudi Arabia up to?
There is a chronic disconnect between what Saudi Arabia says it’s going to do and what
actually happens. So what’s really going on?
Contango, backwardation, and all that good stuff
From some of the comments that have appeared both here and on some other blogs about my post
Oil futures and the
future of oil, it seems that some readers might appreciate a technical background
discussion of the way in which carrying costs and convenience yield influence the relation
between spot prices and futures prices. So if that describes you, by all means read on.
Oil futures and the future of oil
Commodity traders can have as hard a time as any of us trying to predict oil prices. But it’s interesting to see what the current price structure tells us about what traders believe brought about the current high prices and what may be in store for us next.
Economic consequences of the high price of oil
All but one of the U.S. recessions since World War II have been preceded by a dramatic increase
in crude petroleum prices. Recent turbulence in energy markets has some analysts speculating that,
in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it could be deja vu all over again. But this oil price shock
differs significantly from earlier episodes, leading me to believe that the economy will be able to
adapt to the new pricing environment without a major economic slowdown.
What’s up with oil prices?
Oil prices made the third sustained run above $50 that we have seen over the last 9 months. Although the week-to-week price changes have been quite volatile, it appears that long-run factors, particularly strong oil demand from China and other developing counries, is the major story here.