Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Wednesday offered a grim view of the world’s rising vulnerability to high crude oil prices, saying he was skeptical that oil producers can pump enough crude to meet future demand.
Since the 1940s, U.S. consumers have shown an uncanny ability to shoulder rising energy prices, but consumers’ immunity to oil price shocks is running out, Greenspan said.
“The United States, especially, has been able to absorb the huge implicit tax of rising oil prices so far,” Greenspan told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his first congressional testimony since leaving the U.S. central bank earlier this year. “However, recent data indicate we may finally be experiencing some impact.”
