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Hot Topics: The Price of Oil

The following articles and reports will discuss the effects of high oil prices on the U.S. economy.

Selected articles

Due to contractual arrangements, access to some articles may be restricted to the Stanford community, and subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of the ideas expressed.

Oil dips as markets calm, but no letup at the pump. San Francisco Chronicle, 6/17/08
Oil prices ended modestly lower Tuesday as investors mulled whether expected production increases would do enough to quench rising global demand. It was the third straight day of declines.
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Oil Prices Raise Cost of Making a Range of Goods. New York Times, 6/8/08
Surging oil prices are beginning to cut into the profits of a wide range of American businesses, pushing many to raise prices and maneuver aggressively to offset the rising cost of merchandise made from petroleum.
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Double, double, oil and trouble. Economist, 5/31/08
After oil hit its recent record of $135 a barrel, consumers and politicians started to lash out in every direction.
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Teeth Gritted, Drivers Adjust to $4 Gasoline. New York Times, 5/24/08
Hating every minute of it, Americans are slowly learning to live with high gasoline prices. For a nation accustomed to cheap fuel, big vehicles and sprawling suburbs, the adjustments are wrenching.
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Oil Surpasses $125 Per Barrel as Dollar Weakens. New York Times, 5/9/08
Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member.
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Gas at $3.50 a gallon; oil spikes to $117 a barrel. MSNBC, 4/21/08
Rising gasoline prices tightened the squeeze on drivers Monday, jumping for the first time to an average $3.50 a gallon at filling stations across the country.
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Oil falls after setting new record. MSNBC, 3/7/08
Oil prices jumped to a new record above $106 Friday but settled lower, extending their recent pattern of choppy trading after a weak jobs report convinced many traders that the Federal Reserve's interest rate cutting campaign will continue.
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Supply Fears Push Oil to Triple Digits. New York Times, 2/20/08
Crude oil closed above $100 a barrel for the first time Tuesday, vaulting through a longstanding psychological barrier amid persistent concern about whether production can keep up with rising global demand.
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State's gas prices drop 20 cents in month. San Francisco Chronicle, 2/13/08
California's gasoline prices fell 20 cents in the last month as crude oil costs slumped, drivers bought less fuel and gas supplies grew.
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Crude futures go over $100 a barrel briefly, closing at $99.63. San Francisco Chronicle, 1/3/08
Crude oil futures topped $100 per barrel in intraday trading for the first time Wednesday, surpassing an important price barrier that was expected to topple due to political unrest and strained global energy supplies.
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Is $100 Oil As Lethal As It Looks?. BusinessWeek, 11/19/07
At around $96 a barrel, oil is on the verge of smashing through two psychological barriers: the first-ever triple-digit price and the highest price ever in inflation-adjusted terms.
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Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis. New York Times, 11/9/07
With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of $100 a barrel, the world is headed toward its third energy shock in a generation. But today’s surge is fundamentally different from the previous oil crises, with broad and longer-lasting global implications.
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Can a Plucky U.S. Economy Surmount $80 Oil? New York Times, 10/5/07
The economy may be starting to sputter as damage from the weak housing market drags down growth. If payrolls drop significantly, will high-price crude oil begin to cause pain in a way that it hasn’t in nearly three decades?
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Oil prices above $83 after setting new record. MSNBC, 9/20/07
Crude oil prices surged further into record terrain Thursday, breaching $83 a barrel as the weak dollar and last week's decline in U.S. oil inventories spurred buying of futures.
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Record Failures at Oil Refineries Raise Gas Prices. New York Times, 7/22/07
Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.
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Oil hits $68 a barrel, highest close since Sept. Associated Press, 6/15/07
Gas futures extend rally, raising the prospect of higher prices at the pump.
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Oil prices jump after unexpected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. Boston Herald, 3/7/07
Oil prices jumped by more than $1 per barrel Wednesday after the U.S. government reported an unexpected drop in crude inventories amid the lowest import levels since 2005.
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Saudi Officials Seek to Temper the Price of Oil. New York Times, 1/28/07
Saudi Arabia, which benefited immensely from record oil prices last year, has sent signals in the past two weeks that it is committed to keeping oil at around $50 a barrel - down $27 a barrel from the summer peak that shook consumers across the developed world.
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Speculators keep oil prices afloat. CNN, 1/9/07
Investors still think oil is a hot commodity, which may explain why crude hasn't fallen far despite brimming supplies, warm weather and a cooling economy.
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Oil's price swings to $62. CNN, 12/8/06
Healthy U.S. crude inventories outweigh concerns of a production cut by OPEC next week, sending oil prices lower.
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Oil Prices Rise by More Than $1 a Barrel. San Francisco Chronicle, 11/3/06
Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel Friday on worries that militants in Nigeria are preparing to launch simultaneous attacks in the country's oil-rich delta region.
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Why gas prices dropped. Fortune, 10/16/06
Trust us. It wasn't OPEC or Republicans trying to influence midterm elections.
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Better Mood at the Gas Pump. What About the Voting Booth? New York Times, 9/30/06
Gasoline prices have plummeted in the last month, dropping by nearly 25 percent since mid-July, and despite a recent uptick in crude oil prices, most energy experts still expect the price of gasoline to fall a bit further by November.
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Oil's slippery slope. San Francisco Chronicle, 9/24/06
Deep-pocketed speculators helped fuel the steep rise in oil and natural gas prices as they pumped money into the markets for those commodities. Now they're pulling some of their money out, causing prices to plummet.
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Prudhoe Bay and $100 Oil. BusinessWeek Online, 8/10/06
The shutdown of the nation's biggest oil field has fueled fears of a spike in prices. Here's why that's not the case.
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Would $100 Oil Slam the Global Economy? BusinessWeek Online, 7/27/06
Analysts say most of the world's economies could weather the steeper price fairly well. But it could help put the brakes on U.S. growth.
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Alt-fuel sellers expect boost if oil prices keep rising. Associated Press, 6/12/06
If the United States is going to end its addiction to oil, the fuel station of the future might look like Pearson Ford Fuel Depot.
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Calif. Demands Answers On Oil Prices. CBS News, 6/6/06
California's Attorney General has begun hauling the CEOs of major oil companies into his office - demanding, in closed door sessions, that those executives tell him, under oath, why gas prices are higher in California than almost anywhere else in the nation.
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Gas prices: No relief in sight. CNN/Money, 5/19/06
Demand has cooled a bit, but with a robust economy and limited inventories, don't expect good news for drivers - or investors.
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Gas prices easing at historic highs California drivers still pay more than rest of the country. San Francisco Chronicle, 5/17/06
California's gasoline prices have finally stopped soaring, but only after rising more in the last month than they did even after Hurricane Katrina last year.
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What's driving up prices? Fortune, 5/15/06
This article discusses decisions by the White House and the United States Congress, which the author believes are responsible for the high price of gasoline.
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Bodman sees up to three years of fuel pain. MSNBC, 5/1/06
Gasoline prices have soared an average of 60 cents a gallon in less than a month because suppliers are unable to keep up with demand, a situation that could persist up to three more years, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Sunday.
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Profits, Prices Spur Oil Outrage. Washington Post, 4/28/06
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices at the pumps.
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Record Oil Prices Help Hybrids. Red Herring, 4/19/06
Hybrid makers and proponents of the fuel-efficient cars said Wednesday they hoped that oil's spike to a record $73 per barrel would boost hybrid vehicle sales, which have fallen from previous levels.
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Page updated by: Nora Richardson