, Columnist
We Already Have a Solution for Oil’s Price Shock
There’s an opportunity to close budget gaps, reduce petroleum demand and cut emissions, all at once. The answer lies in public transit.
There’s a better way.
Photographer: Vanessa Leroy/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
You don’t need to look at how close crude is getting to its all-time record high of $147.50 a barrel to know what a world struggling with elevated oil prices looks like. For most of humanity, we’re already there.
In nominal local-currency terms, countries accounting for at least a third of global oil consumption are already paying more than they ever had. Members of the euro zone and India, the largest consumers of crude after the U.S. and China, surpassed their previous record prices on Wednesday and Monday, respectively. Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia are all in the same boat: