While you’re watching the oil price or, more likely, the diesel or petrol price, there’s a lot of interesting action going on in markets for all the other things that we get from refining a barrel of oil. Most people don’t realise just how many products are derived from oil. Even if we never burned another litre of it for fuel for cars, boats, jets, and ships, we would still need to pump and refine a lot of oil. How much? Well, we use about 100 million barrels a day. And about 85% of the oil that we pump is used for energy. So, we would still need at least 15 million barrels a day for all the other things.

It looks as though interest rates have bottomed out and have started a long march higher. If we look at the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, we can see the whole story. Interest rates went on a long upward swing from the early 1960s through to 1980. Then began the long downtrend that has been all that many people have ever known. Interest rates hit bottom in 2020 and have been heading higher since. This has very significant implications.

As everybody knows by now, fuel prices have risen substantially since the beginning of March 2026. There is a possibility that the circumstances that have led to this situation may worsen before they get better. While there is lots to discuss, there are three interesting things that can be analysed with some basic economics. First, should governments put a cap on petrol and diesel prices? Second, should governments reduce or remove fuel excise taxes? Third, are rising oil prices inflationary? For each question, there is room for debate.