Most people have no clue that forty-dollar oil today is not the same beast as forty-dollar oil in 2010—or earlier. Inflation, though now bludgeoning them daily, still registers in the public mind as little more than a vague irritation. They complain about high prices, maybe toss the word “inflation” around like a borrowed coat, but deep down many cling to the fantasy that it’s all the handiwork of some shadowy cabal in smoke-filled rooms.
The truth is duller and therefore more dangerous. Yes, the origins are shady, but a conspiracy would require intelligent design, foresight, even coherence. What we actually have is a political class stumbling from one contingency to the next, incapable of orchestrating anything more elaborate than its own incompetence. To call it a conspiracy flatters it with too much intelligence.And yet, worse than the paranoia is the blindness. People can’t even begin to grasp what inflation does to value. Forty dollars today is closer to thirty—or less—in 2010 money. Back then, such a price would have crushed oil companies outright. Today? It limps them along, but the real crushing blow is to the public’s imagination, which no longer understands the ground shifting beneath its feet.
https://read.nxtbook.com/gulf_energy_information/world_oil/july_2025/column_exploration_head.html