Joe Weisenthal
Given where we are in the year, prices are unusually high. And if trends hold, then the national average will be well over the $4 freakout point sometime this summer.
But whenever the discussion turns to gas and oil, logic tends to die, and people start coming up with all kinds of bizarre explanations for what's going on -- explanations such as the Bernanke's money printing, Obama's domestic energy policy, Obama's foreign policy, speculators, price gougers, and so on.
So we thought it would be a good time to just clear up some misconceptions, and explain what's really driving the price.
Of course, you can't start a discussion about gasoline without talking about oil. So let's begin there.
You may have heard that the price of a barrel of oil is around $109, but actually that's the US domestic West Texas Intermediate price of oil. A better international benchmark is probably Brent Crude, and that's now well over $120/barrel, having surged all year.
Given where we are in the year, prices are unusually high. And if trends hold, then the national average will be well over the $4 freakout point sometime this summer.
But whenever the discussion turns to gas and oil, logic tends to die, and people start coming up with all kinds of bizarre explanations for what's going on -- explanations such as the Bernanke's money printing, Obama's domestic energy policy, Obama's foreign policy, speculators, price gougers, and so on.
So we thought it would be a good time to just clear up some misconceptions, and explain what's really driving the price.
Of course, you can't start a discussion about gasoline without talking about oil. So let's begin there.
You may have heard that the price of a barrel of oil is around $109, but actually that's the US domestic West Texas Intermediate price of oil. A better international benchmark is probably Brent Crude, and that's now well over $120/barrel, having surged all year.
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