When the price of oil rises, the price of everything else rises. It’s a near-universal rule owing to the fact that virtually all goods and services involve the use of oil at some stage of the supply chain that brings them from producer to consumer. The most unwelcome consequence of this rule is that when economies are in an already precarious situation, inflation-wise, higher oil prices are the last thing they need. And yet higher oil prices are exactly what the troubled U.S. and European economies are currently getting. And it might get…
