Examining the 20-year chart of crude oil provides insights into its historical price movements and trends. This article explores the factors influencing crude oil prices, including supply and demand dynamics, geopolitical tensions, and economic indicators. It also discusses the significant shifts in the market, such as the impact of the global recession in 2008-2009 and the surge in shale oil production. However, predicting future crude oil prices remains challenging due to the complex nature of the industr

Stagflation (stagnation and inflation in one word) depicts a time period when an economy is not only suffering from a recession (declining GDP), but high unemployment and inflation rates as well. Usually unemployment and inflation are inversely related, which makes stagflation a rare occurrence. It first happened in the 1970s, when OPEC put an oil embargo on the United States, resulting in oil prices skyrocketing to three times the standard value at that time. As of September 2023, the price of oil fell by 20 percent in comparison to last year after having increased by 76 perent as a result of Russian invasion of Ukraine. The has been signs of stagflation in some countries through 2022 and 2023, but falling inflation rates indicate that the worst has been avoided.

In 2023, it was estimated that over 161 million Americans were in some form of employment, while 3.64 percent of the total workforce was unemployed. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s, although these figures are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond. 1980s-2010s Since the 1980s, the total United States labor force has generally risen as the population has grown, however, the annual average unemployment rate has fluctuated significantly, usually increasing in times of crisis, before falling more slowly during periods of recovery and economic stability. For example, unemployment peaked at 9.7 percent during the early 1980s recession, which was largely caused by the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution on global oil prices and inflation. Other notable spikes came during the early 1990s; again, largely due to inflation caused by another oil shock, and during the early 2000s recession. The Great Recession then saw the U.S. unemployment rate soar to 9.6 percent, following the collapse of the U.S. housing market and its impact on the banking sector, and it was not until 2016 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels. 2020s 2019 had marked a decade-long low in unemployment, before the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in unemployment since the Great Depression, and the total number of workers fell by almost 10 million people. Despite the continuation of the pandemic in the years that followed, alongside the associated supply-chain issues and onset of the inflation crisis, unemployment reached just 3.67 percent in 2022 - current projections are for this figure to rise in 2023 and the years that follow, although these forecasts are subject to change if recent years are anything to go by.

For most of the past two decades, China had the highest GDP growth of any of the BRICS countries, although it was overtaken by India in the mid-2010s, and India is predicted to have the highest growth in the 2020s. All five countries saw their GDP growth fall during the global financial crisis in 2008, and again during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020; China was the only economy that continued to grow during both crises, although India's economy also grew during the Great Recession. In 2014, Brazil experienced its own recession due to a combination of economic and political instability, while Russia also went into recession due to the drop in oil prices and the economic sanctions imposed following its annexation of Crimea.

Production of natural gas in the United States has been increasing for the past decade and peaked at nearly 1033 billion cubic meters in 2023 and 2024. An increase in production corresponded with rising demand for natural gas in the United States, particularly after the 2008 Recession.    Natural gas becomes competitive Since the early 2000s, the price of coal had been going up, and increased more rapidly following the 2008 Recession, which affected the cost of crude oil to an even greater degree. When the price of crude oil peaked shortly after the financial crisis, consumption of petroleum decreased in the next year. Simultaneously, the cost of natural gas dramatically decreased, making it a stronger competitor with coal and petroleum. The rise of fracking Low-interest rates during the Recession led to new investments in new techniques to obtain natural gas, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, that may be controversial due to health and environmental impacts. Often obtained through fracking, shale gas has become a common form of natural gas, and shale gas production in the United States has increased dramatically since the financial crisis.

The average diesel price in Ireland was 139.9 British pence per liter in May 2025. Figures decreased that month as crude oil prices traded lower following concerns over a global recession.