I can recall the long gas lines in 1979, when things were so bad in the Northeast that states established "even-odd" days to ration gasoline.

Of course, readers do not need to be that old to remember when low energy prices were thought to be a boon for the U.S. economy. Remember last month, when Donald Trump tweeted, "good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!" just as the energy markets were crashing?

That was so March. This month, Donald Trump appeared to achieve a major diplomatic victory, albeit one that is somewhat odd. On Sunday, after a month of disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the oil-producing nations agreed to significant cutbacks in an effort to stabilize the price of oil. The New York Times' Clifford Krauss reported the key driver behind the agreement: "President Trump, facing a reelection campaign, a plunging economy and American oil companies struggling with collapsing prices, took the unusual step of getting involved after the two countries entered a price war a month ago. Mr. Trump had made an agreement a key priority."

Krauss quoted the head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets later on in the article: "President Trump, who spent the last three years criticizing OPEC, became the de facto president of the producer group."