Lessons from the 1970s help U.S. and global economies absorb oil shocks

The world economy is experiencing a disorienting flashback to the 1970s.

Oil prices are once again surging in the wake of war in West Asia, driving up the cost of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and threatening a return to stagflation — the toxic mix of higher prices and slower growth that made economic life so miserable a half century ago.