Economy Archives -

Gasoline prices, consumer behavior, and the new economic resilience

May 20, 2026

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – For decades, the conventional economic narrative held that rising gasoline prices act as a direct tax on consumers, reducing discretionary spending and slowing economic growth. That framework still exists in textbooks, but real-world behavior—especially in the post-2020 environment—suggests the relationship has fundamentally evolved. The modern U.S. consumer is not responding to

Trump, Xi to weigh tariff cuts on $30 billion of imports in managed trade push

May 13, 2026

(BOE Report) – The U.S. and China are expected to inch toward a managed trade mechanism for non-sensitive goods this week, with each side possibly identifying some $30 billion worth of goods on which they could reduce tariffs and sell to each other without crossing national security red lines. The so-called “Board of Trade” was first broached by U.S. Trade

Oil gains as U.S.-Iran tensions near Hormuz offset strong U.S. jobs data

May 8, 2026

(Investing) – Oil prices edged higher on Friday after U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged fire near the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the escalation, President Donald Trump maintained that the month-old ceasefire was still in place, with Brent crude remaining above $100 per barrel. As of 08:30 ET, Brent Oil Futures was marginally up 0.2% to $100 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI)

$125 oil could tip global economy into recession

May 4, 2026

(Oil Price) – Elevated oil prices for a sustained period of time would tip the global economy into a recession, Moody’s Analytics’ head of international economics, Gaurav Ganguly, told CNBC, pegging the game-changing price at $125 per barrel of Brent crude. If prices go that high and stay that high long enough, the world will enter a recession, but it will

Gulf economies head for worst crisis since pandemic as war roils energy lifeline: Reuters poll

April 27, 2026

(Investing) – BENGALURU – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies are sliding into their worst economic crisis since the pandemic, with several expected to contract this year on spillovers from the U.S.-Israel war with Iran right on its doorstep. The war’s knock-on effects have ripped through the energy market – the Gulf economies’ lifeline – driving oil prices sharply higher and triggering a historic

Thailand, Iranian oil, and the economic cost of sanctions and war

April 23, 2026

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – Thailand’s recent decision to explore crude supply options with Oman reflects not a collapse in access to Iranian oil, but a deeper vulnerability to the geopolitical architecture surrounding it. Thailand does not meaningfully import Iranian crude. However, the U.S.–Iran war, combined with Washington’s tightened maritime blockade and secondary sanctions, has exposed how

Iran’s GDP drain grows as maritime blockades tighten financial pressure points

April 20, 2026

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – Iran’s economy is absorbing a fast‑widening financial shock as the combined impact of the Strait of Hormuz blockade and Red Sea disruptions sharply constrains oil exports, trade flows, and access to hard currency. Analysts tracking sanctions enforcement and maritime traffic estimate the immediate economic damage at roughly $435 million per day, with

Inflation jumps to 2.4% in March driven by Iran war oil shock, StatCan says

April 20, 2026

(BOE Report) – The annual rate of inflation accelerated to 2.4 per cent in March as the war in Iran sent fuel costs soaring, Statistics Canada said Monday. That’s a jump of more than half a percentage point from the headline inflation rate of 1.8 per cent in February, though economists had widely expected the March figures to come in

Oil shock 2.0: Inflation back, rate cuts fading

April 14, 2026

(By Oil & Gas 360) – The market isn’t just reacting to higher oil prices. It’s reacting to what those prices mean this time. What’s unfolding looks less like a temporary spike and more like a second-order shock, one that’s already starting to ripple through inflation, interest rates, and growth expectations in ways that feel more persistent than 2022. This time,

Goldman: Oil shock will hit jobs

March 27, 2026

(Oil Price) – The oil shock will soon show up where it usually does—jobs. Goldman Sachs warned that higher crude prices could cost the U.S. labor market around 10,000 jobs per month through the rest of the year, as elevated energy costs ripple through the broader economy. The hit comes even after accounting for gains in the oil patch. Higher prices

Oil prices hover around four-month high, buoyed by weak dollar and outages

January 28, 2026

(Investing) – NEW YORK- Oil prices rose to their highest since late September on Wednesday after a winter storm disrupted U.S. crude production while a weak U.S. dollar and continued Kazakh outages lent further support. Brent crude futures were up 43 cents, or 0.64%, to $68 a barrel at 11:40 a.m. ET (1640 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 53 cents, or

How long can Wall Street shrug off Trump’s ‘visible hand’?: McGeever

January 12, 2026

(BOE Report) – If record-high U.S. stock prices accurately reflect investors’ assessment of the first year of Trump 2.0, then it’s a glowing scorecard for the most interventionist government in decades. It’s yet another example of the topsy-turvy economic world where the global norms and orthodoxies of the last 40 years are being questioned and sometimes discarded by the U.S.

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