A lot of gas trapped, oil reserves tapped, and Live Nation gets a (tiny) cap

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong, and I'm joined today by my co host, Darienne Woods. Hey, Waylon. Well, today, we're also joined by Planet Money's Sarah Gonzalez. Hey, guys. Nice to be here. And on video this time, I did my hair for you. It looks beautiful. And while everyone locks in not just their glam, but their prediction market bets for the Oscars this weekend, we here at The Indicator will lock in our Indicators are everywhere. Of the week. So it's that time of the week when we talk about the most interesting numbers from the news. On today's episode, we are talking about Gas prices going up, up, up. And a plan to maybe get gas prices to go back down, down, down. And Live Nation and Ticketmaster live to see another day. Nine lives, those guys. Those underdogs. It is indicators of the week. Darian Woods, you are up first. So my indicator is 20, as in 20,000,000,000 barrels of oil trapped, which is 20% of global supply, and it's meaning gasoline prices have gone up 20%. I am watching the gas station closest to me. The numbers do keep ticking up. Yeah. So explain the mechanics of how we got here. So 20,000,000 barrels is how much oil and petroleum usually go through the Strait Of Hormuz every day. Now shipping along that route has all but stopped, and so that gives you a sense of how much oil the global economy is missing due to the US Israel war with Iran. Are you able to cut put that number in, like, a historical context or, like, put it in perspective? Yeah. So this is the largest disruption to oil ever. It's far more than was blocked during the Iranian revolution, and that was huge at the time. As mentioned, this blockage is about 20% of global oil supply. Sounds not great. And you're saying gas prices are up 20% because of this? Yeah. Roughly 20% over the month. And on Wednesday, the average price of gasoline at the pump was $3.58 a gallon. Okay. So high energy prices obviously slowed down the economy, but I don't know. Is this gonna be as bad as, like, the oil crisis of the nineteen seventies? I mean, we use gas more efficiently now. Right? Like, our our cars, our electricity generators, they don't need as much fuel as as they used to. Yeah. That is totally true. Our economy makes more stuff and creates more value with a lot less oil than we used to. But as mentioned, this is a huge disruption, and so if it goes on, I would expect prices to rise all over the economy. But don't we make so so much oil in The US? I mean, we're a net exporter. That is true, but it doesn't shield you from what's going on around the world. You know, this is a global commodity sold at world …