Commodity Markets and the Global Economy

In an era defined by financial upheaval, few parts of the economy have witnessed the kind of volatility seen in commodities markets. In this book, Blake Clayton, a Wall Street analyst and adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, draws on the latest thinking from academia and the private sector to deliver a clear-eyed analysis of pressing questions at the intersection of commodity markets, natural resource economics, and public policy. The result is a work that challenges the conventional wisdom about how these markets function and provides a fresh perspective on what public policy can do to improve them.

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.

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.