Sheikh and roll

It doesn’t look good. Oil prices have hit new highs. And yet the global economy and stock markets continue to float on. That seems odd – especially as the last time oil prices were this at this level, in real terms, was during the 1973/4 oil price shock. Thankfully, much has changed since then – including the shape of oil producers’ economies. In the 1970s, oil exporters couldn’t spend their windfall fast enough, no matter how hard they tried. The effect of this was huge. Had they spent as fast ...