“On Thursday and Friday last week, the price of Brent crude surged more than 15 percent higher in one of the largest two-day moves on record.” Headline 2: “On Thursday and Friday last week, the price of Brent crude rose by $4.30 per barrel, which was a large but not uncommon two-day increase that occurs a few times most years.” The first version describes an extremely rare event that needs special explanation while the second describes something much more like the everyday rise and fall in prices. Headline writers obviously prefer the first formulation because it is more exciting, but both headlines describe exactly the same movement in oil prices that occurred on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22. Writers and analysts measure and describe oil price movements […]