Abdalla El-Badri, secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, talked with Bloomberg today about the spiking price of oil and its dampening effect on global economic growth. He points out that the price surge over the past few months has been led by speculation against the US currency, and not based on a pick-up in global demand. My point: we should be wary of this speculative trend again and remember how severely it reversed the last time.
And as David Rosenberg correctly points out this morning, since spiking oil prices were harmful to an economy that was firing on all cylinders in 2007-2008, surely we should be concerned about its inflaming effects on a much weakened consumer and economy now.
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