Oil and Commodity Prices.

As oil prices hit a new record of $70.20, it is actually the whole commodity market (time to have copper and zink mine shares) which has been soaring:

However in real terms commodity prices are still under their 1970s peak. This is definitely putting things into perspective but...

... it does not mean they won't go higher and above. Besides, if the current crisis is partly political (see Iran, Venezuela, ec...) there is more to it than political tension as there was in the 70s. Demand for commodities is going up more rapidly - and it is not going to slow down, think of China in the future - and supply is struggling. It has been unable to keep up with the demand. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it but it seems to make sense to me.

(charts found on Jerome-a-Paris)