We can tell you who will really get rich from this oil crisis – and how we can stop them | Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk
#oil crisis #wealth inequality #price gouging #windfall tax #market manipulation #economic policy #energy profits
📌 Key Takeaways
- The current oil crisis is disproportionately benefiting a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations.
- This wealth accumulation is driven by price gouging and market manipulation, not just supply and demand.
- The authors propose policy interventions, such as windfall taxes, to curb excessive profits and redistribute gains.
- Addressing this inequality is crucial for economic stability and public trust during the crisis.
📖 Full Retelling
<p>Soaring oil costs signal the great transfer of wealth away from households, but also a new opportunity to redistribute it</p><p>The strait of Hormuz is now at the centre of the world. While the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic leads to death, destruction and pollution across the Middle East, the whole of the global economy is bracing for the fallout from the conflict. Shipping through the narrow passage has come to a near halt. Already, crude oil prices have shot
🏷️ Themes
Economic Inequality, Energy Policy
📚 Related People & Topics
Isabella Weber
German economist
Isabella M. Weber (born 1987) is a German economist. She is an associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Weber became more widely known for having taken a position in favor of a price control policy.
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We can tell you who will really get rich from this oil crisis – and how we can stop them Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk Soaring oil costs signal the great transfer of wealth away from households, but also a new opportunity to redistribute it T he strait of Hormuz is now at the centre of the world. While the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic leads to death, destruction and pollution across the Middle East, the whole of the global economy is bracing for the fallout from the conflict. Shipping through the narrow passage has come to a near halt. Already, crude oil prices have shot to above $100 per barrel , up from $60 a barrel at the beginning of the year, while gasoline prices are jumping and airlines are announcing price hikes. Governments of oil-importing countries are scrambling to contain the fallout, announcing measures ranging from shorter work weeks to conserve fuel to price regulations. What they are not yet discussing – and what they should – is who, exactly, is about to get very rich from this. The 2022 oil and gas crisis offers a template. It was the last time we saw a price explosion of this magnitude, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . In our recently published paper in Energy Research & Social Science we map, in unprecedented detail, where those profits went. We also suggest there are ways to prevent profiteering, and redistribute the gains and losses from these shocks more fairly. In 2022, net income of publicly listed oil and gas companies reached $916bn globally – a figure more than three times that of the preceding years (even excluding 2020). The US was the single largest beneficiary: US-headquartered companies captured $281bn. This exceeded American investments in the entire low-carbon economy that year ($267bn). While European figures pale in the face of the US, European oil and gas companies also raked in tens of billions of dollars more in profits than in recent years. Whether firms will see a similar windfall from the Ir...
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