The vulnerability of the world economy to oil prices was painfully visible in the first half of 2026 following the US and Israel war against Iran. The power of this commodity to upend economies has been apparent before. In his recently published book Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market, political economist Adam Hanieh provides an expansive history of the connections between oil and capitalism since the 1800s. Economist Imraan Valodia asked him about the book.
