Commodity Markets and the Global Economy

Blake Clayton is a stock analyst at Citigroup in New York, where he covers oil and gas companies and master limited partnerships. Prior to joining Citigroup, Dr Clayton was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he currently serves as an adjunct fellow on energy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford.

1. Introduction: the revenge of the old economy; 2. A twenty-first-century supercycle? Long-term trends in metal and energy prices; 3. Volatility in global food markets; 4. Financial speculation in commodities markets; 5. The implications of oil prices for the US economy and lessons learned from the 2011 Strategic Petroleum Reserve release; 6. The gold standard as an alternative money regime; 7. Conclusion.