Word: spikeness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...decade high three months later, economists were starting to be worried about how badly business activity would be harmed even though oil was not as big a component in the economy as it had been in the '70s. Still, Fed Chairman Greenspan feared the latest spike in energy prices might fuel inflationary pressures again...
...National gasoline prices soared by nearly 13 cents a gallon in the past two weeks - the largest spike in a half-century, according to energy analyst Trilby Lundberg. The new national average for a gallon of gas? $1.67. The high regional average is now $1.95, in San Francisco, and a handful of New York City stations have already cleared the $2 mark. And this a month before the summer driving season gets under...
...First problem: Refineries. With the spike in demand for heating oil just letting up after a frenzied winter, regular annual maintenance on the plants that turn crude into unleaded has stretched into spring, and crude is piling up on the shelves...
...Second problem - and don't let George W. Bush hear about it, it'll only encourage him - is environmental regulation. The other big energy spike this winter, in natural-gas prices, raised the cost of MTBE, a federally required natural gas-based additive used to reduce emissions and raise octane. And new, stricter regulations involving the annual switch-over from winter gasoline to lower-emissions summer fuel have put additional pressure on spring prices...
...Second, the spike in the curve at 1970 is clearly noticeable; as already noted, there may be effects due to the uniqueness of 1970, as well as other aspects of campus atmosphere associated with the Vietnam War. But there is a similar spike at 1945—lower, but on a lower base. I have no idea if these local wartime spikes, or the small Depression-era spike at 1932-33, have any common explanation...