Pricey Oil’s Path to Your Pocket

There’s good news and bad news about superhigh crude prices. First the good news: By the time oil surges past $100 a barrel, the prices of consumer goods will likely have peaked and started dropping. And crude won’t hit the century mark tomorrow: The Goldman Sachs report projected that oil prices won’t see $105 until 2007.

The bad news: If crude costs $100 or more a barrel, gas prices will hit at least $4 a gallon. And prices at the mall will have shot up long before oil reaches the $100 mark, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com.
BusinessWeek Online