In mid-1979, oil prices more than doubled within twelve months. The forces that fed into the dangerous concoction that spawned the Energy Crisis included an exceptionally accommodative Federal Reserve that had kept rates low to combat a previous recession, a global surge in oil demand from a booming world economy, and a geopolitical conflict that drastically reduced oil output.

I’ve been down this road beforeAnd yeah I skidded but forget it.~ Drake Familiarity Breeds Acceptance 12 months ago the world exhaled a collective sigh

For the last year and a half, concerned about the US economy’s ability to sustain itself through a catastrophic pandemic, the Federal Reserve placed training wheels on the US monetary system that came in the form of a zero interest rate fed funds target and a quantitative easing (QE) program that involved the purchase of $120 billion of treasury and mortgage bonds monthly.

After closing the first half of 2021, we are beginning to get a glimpse of some of the unintended consequences that may lie ahead following the unprecedented measures taken to address a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Normal is an illusion.What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. Morticia Addams Changes in the Patterns The concept of normality is

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle In May of this year, the New York Times