Thus it is not susceptible to supply shocks drought, political upheavals, crazy politicians that bedevil practically every other commodity.
For that rule of thumb is largely composed of observations of what has happened in past supply shocks.
Going into the shoulder season there will be much less of a buffer to absorb any exogenous supply shocks.
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The purpose of the SPR is to dampen the effects of catastrophic supply shocks, not to ease a president's political difficulties.
Certainly there were ups and downs during this time, marked by business cycles, energy supply shocks and the like but no major crisis in the business of banking.
In effect these types of measures represent on-off negative supply shocks on inflation, taking it lower, says Tony Volpon, managing director at Nomura Securities in New York.
But the DECC report, compiled by consultants Deloitte, concluded that UK retail sector had "more than enough capacity to meet fuel supply shocks until contingency measures can be put in place".
Over the past two years, some of the main drivers of Chinese inflation have been excess liquidity combined with strong domestic demand and supply shocks to food prices and commodity prices, according to Chang.
The MPC has "looked through" the supply shocks that have hit the economy and pushed up inflation over the past few years - just as it might have done under a nominal GDP regime.
In contrast to the supply shocks of the 1970s, much of the recent run-up in prices has been caused by rapidly rising demand: oil is dear in part because some economies, especially America's and China's, have been growing vigorously.
Industrial firms, having spent years becoming ever leaner in their production techniques and, in the process, making themselves more vulnerable to these sorts of supply shocks, will now have to go partly into reverse, giving up some efficiency gains to become more robust.
Whereas big swings in oil prices usually reflect supply shocks, and precious metals are often seen as a safe haven in times of crisis, The Economist's commodity price index (which excludes oil and precious metals) has traditionally been a fairly good leading indicator of turning-points in global industrial output.
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That tax cut has provided important support for the economy, especially at a time when the economy was hit with some shocks such as rising gasoline prices and supply-side shocks from the earthquake in Japan, problems in Europe.
Even small shocks to supply can be amplified as other firms rush to take advantage of the information.
Alternative energy can be a universal buffer against energy supply disruptions and price shocks, as well as broader economic volatility and global cyclicality.
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Lawrence Summers, America's treasury secretary, attracted attention recently when he likened the new-technology boom to a positive supply-side shock, the converse of the oil-price shocks of the 1970s.
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