$1.84 per Gallon

November 24th, 2008 | by Craig |

So now that gas is down to $1.84/gallon here, I got to wondering when the people who blamed oil companies for the high oil prices this summer were going to thank the oil companies for getting those prices back down.

  1. 15 Responses to “$1.84 per Gallon”

  2. By Sarpy Sam on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    I asked the same question a couple of weeks ago. Nobody had the balls to respond.

  3. By auntie lib on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    And where is BO going to find all that “windfall profits” money so he can share the wealth?

  4. By Craig Moore on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    I suggest that BO ask his believers like Soros to tithe 50% of all their wealth to the Secular Church of Redistribution until all problems go away.

  5. By Walter Greenspan on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    Wholesale gasoline closed at $1.14-25/100 a gallon yesterday (Monday, November 24). That’s up 13-1/2ยข a gallon from last Thursday’s (November 20) $1.00-70/100 closing price, the lowest close since the market topped out, basis the close on Friday, July 11 at $3.56-32/100 a gallon, leading to some to argue that the price downtrend since July 11 may have run its course.

    Retail gasoline prices tend to be at a $0.75 to $1.25/gallon premium to the wholesale gasoline price as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which would mean that a wholesale price of $1.14/gallon would indicate a retail price of $1.89 to $2.39/gallon, depending on where in the U.S. the retail pump might be located.

    Gasoline futures prices will allow you to monitor the wholesale price of gasoline.

  6. By Matthew Koehler on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    So now that gas is down to $1.71/gallon here in Missoula, I got to wondering if we did, in fact, “Drill Here, Drill Now” or “Drill, Baby, Drill?”

    Weren’t these the “solutions” to high gas prices that we’re being proposed by the GOP? Could it be that consumption of gas went down and now the price better reflects that?

  7. By Craig on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    So, what you’re saying here, Matthew, is that the market works?

    Wow, who’da thunk it?

  8. By JP on Nov 25, 2008 | Reply

    I could put on my tinfoil hat and posit the Big Oil Companies (TM) have now lowered the price to hedge against the pending windfall profits tax in light of the new administration.

    “We can’t afford it, I mean, look at the plummeting price, we need it all to explore new, green energy sources.”

    Stranger things have happened.

  9. By Steve T. on Nov 26, 2008 | Reply

    One way or another – both sides are now free to forget about the “energy crisis” and move onto other things they never intended to do anything about (immigration reform?).

    And GM can keep making as many SUVs as they want once they get their bailout.

  10. By Mark T on Nov 26, 2008 | Reply

    Prices dropped 33% in October alone – sure, there are coincidences, but 11/4 on the horizon might have had something to do with this.

    Anyway, this is temporary. Now is the time to buy oil stocks.

  11. By Chad on Nov 26, 2008 | Reply

    I would hold off on the oil stocks.

    I was one of the people that Craig speaks of, and I’ll admit the point has some merit. Oil companies used record profits to bring new refineries online — mostly in the Middle East and explore for new stocks of oil, which they subsequently did pursue.

    I don’t think they did everything they could, but they get a passing grade.

    That all being said, the oil bubble was just one of many that were being inflated as a side effect of the credit bubble. My guess is that the pin that burst the oil bubble had most to do with McGraw-Hill than any action by any oil producer. If it hadn’t have happened by McGraw-Hill, something else would have caused it.

    Textbooks? What the heck do textbooks have to do with the oil bubble bursting? I’m not answering that. I want to see if anyone else can figure out my logic.

    Muahahahahaha!

  12. By Chad on Nov 26, 2008 | Reply

    Oh, and one more point — if I am right about McGraw-Hill, what we saw with this most certainly is not the way markets are supposed to work.

  13. By dogette on Nov 27, 2008 | Reply

    I never miss a chance to lay the blame for this insane gas-price drop where it CLEARLY belongs: on President Bush. I overheard someone the other day say they had a family member in (didn’t catch it) “Other State” paying $1.39. Friggin’ GW Bush.

  14. By David Crisp on Nov 30, 2008 | Reply

    Of course markets work. Anybody who has ever priced a baggie of marijuana knows that. That’s not the point.

    The point is that rising gasoline prices never had much to do with the oil companies or with speculators. Oil companies have some (very) limited power to manipulate the market in the short term, and speculators can exaggerate whatever trend is in place.

    But the trend itself never changes: We keep consuming more oil, and the supply isn’t growing. Moreover, what supply is left becomes increasingly expensive to get at. Blips in the market may mask that, but they can’t alter the reality.

  15. By Chuckypita on Dec 2, 2008 | Reply

    I love Montana. That stadium in Missoula – is there a better atmosphere in all of college football?

    If gas rates can stay low like this, maybe I’ll make another drive through “God’s country” soon.

  16. By Gman on Dec 8, 2008 | Reply

    Oh, so the market determines the price of gas! Wow! What an epiphany! I had the same question in my mind, Craig, as posited by you in this fine post.

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