Households are now spending an estimated $5,000 a year on gasoline:

U.S. households are now spending the equivalent of $5,000 a year on gasoline, up from $2,800 a year ago, according to Yardeni Research. In March, the annual rate of gasoline spending was at $3,800, Yardeni noted. During the week of May 16, the national retail price for gasoline reached a record $4.59 per gallon, the firm said.

Again, the effects of that are like water flowing through gullies, and valleys and into tributaries and rivers. The effects will follow specific paths through the economy, periodically meeting and growing in force as they move downstream.

As of now, there is no visible means by which fuel supply will be increased at some point, and thus no perceptible end to the crisis. However with a mere few words, OPEC could certainly alter that, and in doing so create a predictable change within and throughout the entire economic system, which would vastly alter valuations of all sorts of financial properties.

It is no coincidence the Kingdom is so heavily invested in the West, as are so many other power players.