>Well, maybe they should complain. After all we spent a lof of bucks and a
>lot of time with that big war in the Persian Gulf so we could have
>cheap gas and now they have the gall to cut production and riase our
>prices. What gratidue is there among thieves.
Not sure who the thieves are here. But a brief history of the price of gasoline in the U.S., according to the gasoline subindex of the CPI:
Between the war fevered peak in December 1990 and the trough in February 1999, the price of gasoline fell by 22.9% while the overall price level rose 24.5%. The relative price of gasoline - the gas subindex divided by the overall CPI - fell by 42.2%, to the lowest since the gas series began in March 1935. Between 1935 and 1972 (just before the first embargo), the relative price of gas fell by 30.6%; between 1972 and 1981 (just before the great Volcker disinflation took hold), it rose 87.6%. Between 1981 and Feb 99's trough, the relative price fell by 59.8%. Between Feb and Mar 99, it rose by a staggering 2.9%.
The net result of all this is that the relative price of gasoline, even after the March incrase, is 22.3% below what it was in 1972, before the first embargo. Is this what Mad Albright meant when she said that 500,000 dead Iraqi children was a "price worth paying"?
Doug