{"id":29118,"date":"2022-03-28T01:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=29118"},"modified":"2022-03-29T01:42:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T01:42:07","slug":"soaring-crude-prices-make-the-cost-of-pretty-much-everything-else-go-up-too-because-we-almost-literally-eat-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/soaring-crude-prices-make-the-cost-of-pretty-much-everything-else-go-up-too-because-we-almost-literally-eat-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring crude prices make the cost of pretty much everything else go up too because we almost literally eat oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Veronika Dolar<\/a>, SUNY Old Westbury<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price of oil has been spiking in recent weeks in response to concerns<\/a> that the war in Ukraine will significantly reduce supply. But what happens in oil markets never stays in oil markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price of U.S. crude oil jumped to a 13-year high<\/a> of US$130 of on March 6, 2022. It has come down but has been trading above $110 since March 17<\/a>. That\u2019s over 60% higher than it was in mid-December, before fears of a Russian invasion began to mount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this has pushed up the cost of gasoline, which hit an average of $4.32 per gallon in the U.S. on March 14<\/a>. But it\u2019s less well understood how rising energy prices leak into the prices consumers pay for toys, electronics, food and almost every other product you could think of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy is becoming one of the main causes of inflation<\/a>, by which I mean a sustained, generalized increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy. The latest data shows prices are rising at an annualized pace of 7.9%<\/a>, the highest in 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my economics classes<\/a>, I like to joke to my students that we eat petroleum. Students have a hard time imagining drinking crude oil or gasoline, but in fact it\u2019s both figuratively and almost literally true \u2013 and I\u2019m not even referring to how humans ingest about a credit card\u2019s worth of oil-based plastic<\/a> every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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