Oil Has Been A Poor Leading Indicator for (Recent) Recessions

Every time oil drops these days, I notice hand-wringing about whether the fall indicates a recession is somewhere close on the horizon. There is an intuitive appeal to this assumption. Oil is still an engine of economic activity, so declining prices must indicate falling demand. What seems to be “different” this time is a true … Read more

An Unusual View of Timing Panic (Regarding Oil Prices)

This is a “quick hit” post – too long for a tweet, but not a complete blog post either. Maybe I will call these quickits. Anyway, I caught a snippet on CNBC this morning discussing the plunge in oil prices. The on-air personality recounted a conversation she had with an oil analyst. The oil analyst … Read more