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Calm down. Gas prices lag. The reason gas prices are jumping hard now even though oil is falling is because they're just now adjusting to the huge jumps oil made in the past.
I wouldn't read too much into this drop, nor the spike last week. Historically prices always ramp up just before Memorial day and drop right afterwards in a selloff. The dollar has strengthened in the past few days, and if it really makes up ground soon we may indeed see a material drop in oil prices. It sounds like Bernake has finally got to the part in his Econ primer textbook that talks about inflation so we may just see a rate hike soon, which would almost certainly give the dollar a real effective strength boost. Not only would a stronger dollar make oil cheaper for us, it would also make it more expensive for everyone else, checking global demand.
The government has no business regulating oil prices. The market is doing a beautiful job matching prices to demand and supply conditions. Interfering with that would only cause shortages and all other sorts of chaos on a grand scale.
By the way, I'm still loving my less congested commute. Higher gas prices mean more time at home with my wife, and you just can't put a price on that.
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