A half dozen US gasoline refineries have been forced into unplanned shutdowns and several have delayed restarting. This in turn is driving up the price of oil. This all sounds vaguely familiar. Remember the California energy crisis a few years back? Energy plants shutdown for no apparent reason and the prices went up to astronomical levels. Which made it profitable to keep shutting down the plants for no apparent reason. This is a crock.

There seems to be a housing shortage over in Mosul for insurgent foreign fighters. Too many people coming in to kill Americans - not enough places for them to stay. Ironically this is good for the economy as it raises the price of rental property. The warriors are also being chastised for squandering Allah's money on cars and cell phones for their new digs. They don't sound like spartan idealists to me. They sound like any other young capitalist.