This was the FT's chart of the Brent oil crude price per barrel at the close of business yesterday:
Now $99 a barrel, and inexorably rising.
All my economic predictions for this autumn remain: The Great Discomfort is coming.
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The problem for humanity is how it adapts to adversity but increasingly cannot tell the difference between the man made and natural versions.
You should also look at the gap between the price of petrol and diesel vs crude oil. This has greatly increased due to refinery problems. We will regret closing Grangemouth!
Agreed
Dont forget as well that a lot of Russian refineries have been destroyed and shipping refined products out of the Gulf is difficult if not impossible so the ‘crack split’ – the share taken by the refiners is rising. The real issue is the shortage of ‘refined’ products as the capacity to produce them is dropping
Agreed
Might these problems be a consequence of an American policy to subordinate the world by controlling oil and its distribution?
https://michael-hudson.com/2026/07/americas-war-on-an-independent-world/
More signs of stress
Key findings
In Q2 2026, 381,364 mortgages locked into a new deal up to 6 months ahead of maturity; this compares to 499,271 mortgages in the previous quarter, Q1 2026.
Between July 2023 and June 2026, the monthly payments on around 354,000 mortgages were reduced as people switched to temporarily paying interest-only or extended their mortgage term. This is around 3.9% of regulated mortgage contracts.
In Q2 2026, around 22,400 mortgages saw a reduction in monthly payments due to a temporary switch to interest-only or a term extension; this is a slight increase compared to the volume in Q1 2026 (approximately 20,100).
Between July 2023 and June 2026, 376 properties were repossessed within 12 months of missing the first payment.
From Mortgage Charter uptake data – September 2026 | FCA
Thank you