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November 05, 2007
How Bad Is It Going To Get?
Well, gas prices are on the rise. Again. It seems that unrest in parts of the world, unstable governments, the mess we've gotten ourselves into (and can't seem to get out of) in Iraq, and winter, have all conspired to raise the price of gasoline.
To be fair, it the speculators who freak out at a winter storm, or a cloud that passes over an oil drilling rig in the Gulf Of Mexico. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think the media has a big part to play in how the speculators decide that gas prices are going to rise. Follow me on this one...
Each year, just before the mythical "busy driving season", somewhere around Memorial Day, and lasting through Labor Day, the media announces that some talking head at some think tank has fears that there will be less supply, and more demand. Is that really true? With airline traffic at record levels, are more people driving as well? The same holds true for wintertime. Just before Fall scoots out, some media genius somewhere talks to the same talking heads at the same think tanks, who say that forecasters have predicted a colder than normal winter. What happens then? Yup. Natural gas and crude go up. But in this case, it isn't because of supply and demand, it's because some fool couldn't keep their mouths shut about a cold winter. My point is this: If these people simply said it's going to be a warm winter, or not as cold, the prices would stay flat.
My other point is, in the time you've reading this, we've used up this much gas.
Posted by Jon at November 5, 2007 03:15 PM