It Doesn't Matter That Oil Is Priced in Dollars

Morning Edition committed one of the seven deadly sins of economic reporting when it told listeners that Europe is hurt and we are helped because oil is priced in dollars and the dollar is rising. (The biggest sin is reporting large budget numbers without any context -- which will result in an unpleasant afterlife for most budget reporters.) It actually doesn't matter that oil is priced in dollars, as some simple arithmetic quickly shows.

Let's imagine that oil is priced in wheat. Assume the...