Liam Denning, Columnist

Don't Panic About the Gasoline Recession! Unless ...

A drop in demand spells trouble for refiners, at least.

February 22, 2017 at 6:50 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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According to the gasoline market, we're in a recession.

You hadn't noticed? Hmm. Since late January, gasoline demand has been running about 5 or 6 percent lower, year over year, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly estimates. Historically, that sort of drop has only happened when there's been a recession or a huge spike in prices: