Oil Continues to Rise Because the Dollar Is Falling

The primary reason that crude oil today – Brent is at $123 per barrel – is higher than its prior average around $20 in the 1990s, or the $3.00 of the 1960s, is that the dollar has lost value over that time. It doesn’t have much to do with crude oil itself. Today, an ounce of gold would buy about 14 barrels of oil. In the 1960s, it would buy about twelve barrels.