Brent Crude Above $109

Oil prices continued to inch up as Brent crude crossed above $109. A belief that economic stimulus may be put into place from Europe to China has encouraged investors to gamble that supply will begin to dwindle. The increases raise the question again of what will happen if fuel prices return to where they were this last spring. The cost of gas and oil did not seem to throttle the economy then, but something did as global gross domestic product began to sputter. And GDP growth around the world is less robust now than it was in March or April, so the concern about the effects of energy prices should be more extreme.

Douglas A. McIntyre