Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Friday, September 22nd, and today we are talking oil, macro, everything that could throw the economy off.

But before we get to that, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the breakers discord.

You can find a link at the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod.

All right, friends, well, we are sort of continuing the macro story today that we picked up around Powell and the FOMC this week.

And one of the questions that Powell was asked was about risks that threatened to knock the economy off course.

Two that he mentioned that we're going to spend a little

time on today include oil prices and a potential government shutdown. Let's start with oil first.

The price of crude oil has steadily increased over the past four months. From a low of around $70

in June, oil reached almost $90 a barrel for the U.S.-based WTI benchmark contract in 95 per barrel

and 95 per barrel for international Brent crude earlier this week. The price increase for crude

has driven U.S. gas prices back above 380 per gallon, the highest level since last October.

Overall, gas prices have ramped up by 20% since the beginning of the year, according to

AAA. Now, there are a number of the year, according to AAA.

Now, there are a number of factors all contributing to steadily increasing oil prices since

the June lows. The first is OPEC Plus. The economic group of oil-producing nations led by Saudi

Arabia and Russia have recently curbed output. Production cuts, which were agreed to late last year,

have been gradually implemented over the past six months. In cuts, which were agreed to late last year, have been gradually implemented

over the past six months. In July, Saudi Arabia voluntarily cut an additional one million

barrels per day from its production quota, about 10% of its previous output. Existing production

cuts across OPEC have already been extended into next year, and analysts expect Saudi Arabia

...