MW: Oil price spike could return: energy economist
The same factors that drove up oil prices past $147 a barrel last year could easily return, posing a new round of challenges to a global economy on the cusp of recovery, said an energy economist from the University of California, San Diego, Wednesday. In remarks prepared for testimony to Congress, Professor James Hamilton said his research showed high oil prices last year contributed to the U.S. economy's recent troubles. Drivers for oil's rise -- stagnating world output and a surge in demand from China -- could return. "If demand from China and elsewhere returns to its previous rate of growth, it will not be too long before the same calculus that produced the oil price spike of 2007-08 will be back to haunt us again," he said.
