Gas Prices During The 1970s: A Case Study

Energy Crisis (1970’s) states that the crisis officially began when the “Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) reduced their petroleum production and proclaimed an embargo on oil shipments to the United States and the Netherlands, the main supporters of Israel.” They did

This was the first time the United States government enacted the wage and price controls since World War II. The prelude to Nixon’s actions was that the inflation had become a serious problem. Lyndon Johnson imposed a 10% income tax surcharge in 1968 to soak up purchasing power, but this had no effect on inflation whatsoever (capitalgainsandgames.com). Nixon desperately needed to keep inflation bottled up until after the election. Although the wage and price controls undoubtedly helped Nixon politically to win the reelection to the office, they also undermined the long term viability of the American market. Nixon’s act launched United States economy into a decade of unprecedented turbulence, punctuated by episodes of hyperinflation, shortages, high interest rates and stagnation. There was no other Presidential pronouncement since then that has so radically reordered the economic agenda both domestically and

Central Idea: Gas prices are on the rise in the US recently because of three major factors: the price of crude oil, the increase in internal regulations, and the increased demand for the gas.

Twenty-five years of broad economic expansion and prosperity comes to an abrupt end in the 70s as it was replaced by crawling growth and inflation. This sudden shift was due two factors; a mix of long term processes and unexpected shocks. Many long term processes contributed to the economic drawback. Manufacturing was gradual declining in the United States relative to the rest of the world after World War II. In 1971, for the first time in the 1900s, the United States was in an export trade deficit. This was partly because the dollar was linked to gold making products more expensive abroad. Nixon took the United States off the gold standard to make American goods cheaper. Unfortunately, this was not very effective because other nations had significantly cheaper labor and raw materials. This growing competition put many firms out of business. This was especially hurtful for the manufacturing industry, which saw a huge decrease of workers. After success in the 50s and 60s such as pensions and paid vacations, many unionized workers also took a hit in 1970s. Many companies started eliminating high paying jobs and moving jobs to cheaper areas of

President Reagan’s radical tax cuts lead to a decrease in unemployment and an increase in incomes for Americans of all statuses. Despite the fact that, “in the late 1970s, the US economy was experiencing what was then the greatest economic crisis since the great depression… almost every economic measure substantially improved after Reagan’s reforms took effect” (Hannaford). Editors Pat Hannaford and Darcy Allen observe that, “by reducing America’s tax burden, Reagan’s

Each time a person residing in the United States pulls up to a gas station to fill their tank it costs more money. This is particularly true of the past four years. Many focus the blame on the American Government but there are a multitude of factors causing gasoline prices to be so astronomically high. Middle eastern war, environmental precautions and government all seem to have a hand in the price we pay at the pump.

Economically the 1970s proved to be a turbulent time for the United States. The U.S had been involved in a long and unpopular war in Vietnam since 1965. In 1968, Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in one of the closest elections in U.S. history (REF). Nixon eventually achieved a peace agreement to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but domestically, his policies damaged the economy. In 1971, Nixon imposed wage and price controls in an attempt to curb inflation, ended the U.S.’s last ties to the gold standard, effectively devalued the dollar, and imposed a 10

When Ronald Reagan took the leadership of the United States in 1981, Reagan inherited an economy that was in really terrible shape— worst American economy, in fact, since there was the Great Depression of the 1930s. Americans had loved a prolonged period of widespread prosperity from the beginning of World War II to the end of the 1960s, but that long boom—built humongous on the absolute supremacy of American industrial production, temporary consequence of the destruction wrought on other major industrial power Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Japan, during the World War II—had ran out of steam by the early 1970s. The economy began sagging under the weight of a multitude of new structural

“On October 17, 1973, Arab oil producers declared an embargo that drastically limited the shipment of oil to the United States” (OPEC 1). Arab countries refused to sell oil to the United States because of the Yom Kippur War, a war between Egypt and Israel. In this war, United states was backing up Israel by supporting them and giving them weapons, which angered Arab leaders. Arabs started limiting the shipment of oil to the United States. The embargo, however, brought crisis to the US with unequal proportions. US citizens were very panicky because of the shortage of gas and oil. Ultimately, the US economy slowed down, leaving its’ citizens to to be dependent on domestic resources. Shipment of oil in the country dropped by 1 million barrels,

During 1973-1974, with the dwindling of oil resources Americans were faced with the possibility of running out of oil. The Oil Embargo implemented by Arab members of The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries denied exporting oil to the states that supported Israel during the Arab-Israeli War. My questions about this event are how did this oil embargo change The United States and what did they do to adjust to all these changes? First the US had to figure out a new place they could get their oil from, they had to create new energy conservation movements and find new ways to create energy, and then finally they had to change how they looked at international business.

These fuel efficiency automobiles would aid the nation to save on the total energy consumed by the citizens and also reduce on the energy expenses thus fostering growth through the transfer of resources to

Car enthusiasts, all around the U.S, have been waiting for a long time to be satisfied with owning the car they have desired from overseas. In fact, the wait has been 25 years. Owning your own car creates a powerful emotion, and the cars we desire have such a long wait before they are imported, unless they receive special permission and authority from our government. Car companies produce tens of thousands of cars for the states, whether import or domestic. The fine line between buying an American foreign product compared to the factory in Japan, is the car it’s self, meaning quality of manufacturing or the efficiency of their emissions.

According to Domm (2013), the author of the first article, apart from the unrest in Egypt, several other factors such as a plunge in the inventories of domestic crude oil could drive up demand and in the end trigger an increase in the price of gas. In the opinion of the author, although the problems facing Egypt (and Libya) have affected supply

The US consumed 142 billion gallons of gasoline in 2007 and the tax applied on it is 18. 4 cents on one gallon. All around the US, there are around 162,000 retail gasoline outlets. With the price of crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that concern is growing about the gas prices being so high. After all, modern economies are kept moving by this lifeblood. For instance, in the United States alone personal vehicles consume more than 140 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline per year.However, there are several factors that contribute to the gas prices being so high. Given below are a few of them. Increasing Demand for Oil One of the main catalysts for the incessant rise in gas prices has been one of the most

OPEC is abbreviation used for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It is an intergovernmental and permanent organization which came into force in Baghdad in September 1960. Initially formed by the Five Founding members – Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and, Venezuela, it was later joined by 9 other countries which are Qatar, Libya, UAE, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Indonesia and Ecuador. The organization’s headquarters were first located in Geneva, Switzerland for the first five years but were later moved to Vienna, Austria in 1965.