Yesterday the per-barrel price of oil rose two dollars and sixty cents, closing at just under 144 dollars. A research group called the Oil Price Information Service predicted the cost of a barrel would reach 155 dollars by the middle of next month. The current price of oil, by the way, has more than doubled over the past year. What does all this mean? Higher prices to fill your tank. And a great dampening effect on the economy. The only good news is the likelihood that we'll be quicker to replace oil with an energy source that doesn't warm the planet. Whether the effects are good or ill, it looks like the era of cheap energy is behind us. So many aspects of our lives have been based on cheap oil... the sprawling nature of our communities, the global economy that allows us to buy toys from China and peaches from Chile.
Economist Peter Navarro joins us to talk about the reasons why oil is so expensive, and listeners tell us how it's affecting their lives.
Guest:
Peter Navarro, business professor at UC Irvine and author of the book The Coming China Wars.
