It is silly to make long-term comparsions of oil prices without adjusting for the inflation in the intervening years. When a NYT article tells us that oil prices in the 80s had settled at around $18 a barrel in the mid-eighties, it would be worth telling readers that this translates into about $32 a barrel in today's dollars. With prices now hovering in the range of $55 a barrel, they are still considerably higher than they were were in the 80s, but we are talking about a real increase on the order of 70 percent, not a tripling.
The American Prospect is nonprofit, reader-funded journalism—and we need your help.
Our reporters dig deep, hold power to account, and explain how policy shapes people’s lives. If you value independent journalism that goes beyond the headlines, now’s the time to support it.
Here’s how you can help: • Donate to power fearless reporting
• Subscribe to get our print magazine 6x/year.