, Columnist
This Is What an Oil Shock Looks Like
Strikes, subsidies and peaking profits may add up to an early warning.
Protests in Rio de Janeiro this week.
Photographer: Dado Galdieri/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. And right now, this duck is looking a lot like an oil shock:
Judging by internet searches for the term, an oil shock is the last thing anyone should be worried about. It seems insane to be stressing over oil when Brent is struggling to break through $80 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate is bobbing around $70, about one-third lower than their levels four years ago. But crude has a short memory.