Mass psychology must have something to do with it. Oil companies make "obscene" profits -- Microsoft just makes profits. Incidentally, CNBC feeds this, constantly referring to the "high" price of oil as a "tax" upon the economy.
I had my problems with college economics, and there is probably a dimension to all this that I am missing. But my intuitive reaction is comparable to Bobwins -- how does "the economy" care whether I buy oil or some useless hi-tech gadget of the moment?
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