How an Oil Crisis Becomes an Everything Crisis
The 1973 oil embargo showed how a shock to energy supplies can unravel economies, upend politics and make fear a force as powerful as war itself.
A motorist in Boston pours gas into a car from a jug during the oil crisis of 1973-74.
Photographer: Spencer Grant/Getty ImagesIn October 1973, President Richard Nixon faced an affordability crisis, a worsening economy and mounting legal problems. In the run-up to the 1972 election, he had challenged the Federal Reserve’s independence and pressured its chair to cut interest rates. Now the bill was coming due in the form of fast-rising inflation.
Then came fresh conflict in the Middle East. Egypt and Syria invaded Israel, launching the Yom Kippur War. The price of oil was already rising sharply when Arab producers imposed an embargo, cutting supplies in protest at US support for Israel.