This was the clear result of a tightening in supply, however. Another major fuel price shock occurred as a result of the Iranian Revolution and the subsequent Iran/Iraq War. This again caused a supply shock as two of the world's major oil producing nations were completely destabilized (Williams, 2007). In the 2000s, a number of factors have combined to drive up oil prices. Major economic gains in key, highly-populated developing

oil prices and the stock market. The relationship between oil prices and increases in costs to transportation, heating and production are reviewed, and the role of spiking oil prices on market uncertainty is discussed. Overall, higher oil prices are historically linked to declining stock market prices, and it seems reasonable to suggest that future stock market decreases will come from current increases in oil prices. Stock market performance is strongly

Demand Elasticity of Gasoline With gas prices across the country reaching record levels today, understanding the theory of demand elasticity of gasoline has assumed new importance for policymakers and consumers alike. To help understand what motivates consumers to make a purchase decision about a commodity such as gasoline, this paper provides an overview of the economic theory of demand elasticity, empirical data relating to demand elasticity for gasoline, followed by

Oil Market & U.S. Economy In June 2008, when the price of oil had crossed $120 per barrel, the predictions for the impacts on the U.S. economy were dire. Whereas just months previous, prices were expected to top out at $100 before returning to a more reasonable equilibrium point (Schoen, 2007), now the potential of $200 barrel oil came to pass, bringing with it economic catastrophe (Biderman, 2008). The short version

For example, new competing technology called an eventual fall in demand of video cassettes and an eventual reduction of the supply as a new equilibrium was reached. Now there are only a few VHS players and cassettes remaining on the market, while the amount of TiVo and DVR users has exponentially increased. But this took time as people replaced their systems and converted their libraries from one medium to

Basic economic risk management instruments, such as hedging, were simply not used, because the confidence was uncontrollably high and investors never believed that prices would go down or that credits would become more expensive. The important issue is whether or not the economy is following a recession at this moment and, especially, if the stock market is currently bearish as much as it was bullish in the past years. The