Oil Prices: give Stephen Moore some credit

Moore rightfully criticized a USA Today headline “Oil Prices Hit Highest Since Sept. 1990” and has been saying that we should look at oil and gasoline prices in inflation adjusted terms. Now I’m not one to praise NRO writers especially when they point out what is often taught in week one of Econ 101, but Tom Nugent, however, plots nominal oil prices over the 1972 to 2004 period as he suggests anyone who would forecast $60/barrel prices is silly. Nugent notes that nominal prices were around $40 per barrel of oil back in 1980 but in real terms, check out this graph.