Essays

Three words we hear every day. They mean the product is standard, the price is the price, and — the quiet assumption underneath — the cost of making it sits in a tight band, disciplined by competition. Is it true?

Everyone reports 25% of seaborne crude transits Hormuz. Almost nobody can say what share of their material does. So we computed it.

One closure. Three price stories. Crude itself rose about 62% — so none of the three simply "followed oil."

A supplier asked for $728 a tonne on HDPE. Their facility's costs moved $118. Five-sixths of the ask has no cost underneath it.