OPINION/COMMENTARY

Oil Prices and the Federal Reserve The recent spike in international oil prices towards $50 a barrel has conjured up distant memories of earlier oil price shocks. In some quarters it has also raised calls for the Federal Reserve to speed up its planned return to more normal interest rates for fear of allowing inflation again to rear its ugly head. Before heeding such advice, the Federal Reserve would do well to examine how the present run up in international oil prices differs from previous such episodes. For such an examination might reveal that raising interest rates now would be a costly mistake....