Subir Gokarn: The great oil circle
Oil prices have played a huge part in global economic dynamics over the past several years. They rose sharply in the couple of years leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. They crashed during the crisis, but recovered quite quickly. In late 2010, they surged past the $100-a-barrel mark and, with a few, short-lived exceptions, remained above it until about September 2014. Since then, they have fallen quite sharply and, although they have been volatile, seem to have settled below the $60-a-barrel level.