No, the government's job is to protect the public at large, not consumers. If you're dumb enough to stock pile gas on a rumor, you deserve to be fleeced for every dollar that you have. Maybe after a few times of watching gas prices soar $2 on a rumor and come down in a day or two, people will start making mad dashes for the fuel pumps every time a thunderstorm rolls through. A max price on gas would have ensured that all of those who managed to raise prices enough to hold on to some stock would be completely out. Every time you let the government fuck with business and the market, you will create a problem.

9/14/2008 6:26:30 PM

Gas. The new milk, bread, and eggs of the "must have" commodities during natural disasters.

9/14/2008 6:45:57 PM

Government should protect consumers from illegal or unfair business practices. It is not the government's job to protect consumers from rising costs in the face of uncertain or dwindling supplies.

Not to mention, price controls without rationing would do nothing to protect supplies.

9/14/2008 6:53:31 PM

Ok look

THE PRICE OF OIL JUST DROPPED BELOW $100 PER BARREL.

If you are like me, you can go for a week or two without filling up. By the time your tank gets low, pump prices will probably have fallen to <$3.50 again (maybe a bit optimistically). What we have now is a true anomaly due to an act of God. The only people hurt by this are those who have virtually no short-term elasticity in their gasoline usage.

Gas, as of this weekend is cheap on a global scale. The markets like to scare people like you. It often works.

9/14/2008 8:45:35 PM

Quote :

"I think, in times of natural disasters or economic harship, the government should be allowed to control the marketplace."

you know what happens when there are artificial price ceilings?

shortages

9/14/2008 8:53:51 PM

^^NO. OIL is cheap on a global scale. Unfortunately, nobody makes a car that runs on light sweet crude. Everyone always thinks that the price of oil and the price of gas move together; however, there is a supply chain that is between pumping oil out of the ground and it being pumped into our gas tank. Under normal circumstance, the supply chain is invisible to the consumer, and the price of gas and oil tend to move together. When the supply chain is impacted by weather, war, etc... the price of gas and oil begin to move independent of each other. When the refinieries cannot keep up with demand, or there is a risk to refining capacity then the price of GAS must go up, otherwise shortages WILL occur.

"Price gouging" does not exist in a free market. Consumers will pay what their level of demand requires. By allowing station owners to set whatever price for a gallon of gas, you would not have as many people "topping off". Topping off is a phenomenon where consumers attempt to protect themselves from shortages. If gas prices are too high for topping off to be percieved as advantageous, then the phenomenon stops and prices actually would tend do go down. With price controls, or price maximums, the ability of the market to adapt to risk, shortages, and natural human tendancy would be removed, and would further exacerbate the issue.

9/14/2008 10:38:35 PM

^^ unless the price is artificially higher than the perfect competition open free market price aka if collusion or other unfair market manipulation practices are going on.

Quote :

"I realize you all love driving your Smart Cars around"

I drive a A4 that gets 21 mpg in the city. Don't confuse me for teh green liberal hippy douches.

Quote :

"It isn't my co-workers wife's fault that the HURs of the state heard on the radio that gad might go up and decided they all needed to top"

I got gas at lunch time b.c my tank was running low; even than i only put 5 gallons b.c i noticed the price had surged 15 cents within 24 hours.
Figuring this was hurricane panic I got just enough to ensure that I could make it through the weekend w/o running out.
After work though I was shocked to see the price up 50 more cents.

I love capitalism as i said before. Yet you are an idiot if you solely blame this on the demand side and the innocent gasoline retailers and distributors
were the victim of a "run on the gas station" FORCED to raise their prices to prevent selling out. I do agree though
part of the problem was the stupid ignorant consumer going "ZOMG BETTER STOCKUP ON GAS TO LAST THE YEAR OUT"

[Edited on September 14, 2008 at 10:41 PM. Reason : l]

[Edited on September 14, 2008 at 10:43 PM. Reason : ,]

9/14/2008 10:40:07 PM

^most consumers don't want to buy enough gas to last the rest of the year. they just want enough to last until the supply of gas stabilizes and it no longer becomes an issue. you partook in the phenomenon yourself when you purchased just enough gas to make it through the weekend because you though the price would be lower at the end of the weekend. I feel that the price of gas won't be lower at the end of the weekend and it could be Thursday or Friday until the price goes down so I'm going to get as much as I can while its still cheap. since gas was only 15cents more, its still relatively cheap (relative to how much it could be in 3-4 days, or 8 hours in your case) so I top off to protect myself against prices going up and supply shortages. now if major price increases are allowed by station owners, i may have to pay $1 more, at that point I must weigh my options to see if it is worth it to top off, at that point it may be worth it to hope that prices come down in the next week before I need to fill up again.


now if station owners are in fact colluding together to raise prices then that is an issue the AG should take a look at. however simple price increases (no matter how drastic or large) does not neccesarily indicate collusion, it could simply reflect market factors.

[Edited on September 14, 2008 at 10:55 PM. Reason : ]

9/14/2008 10:53:02 PM

another funny thing is that refinery shortages in the US will only lower the price of crude.

Politicians, this is how you lower the price of gas - tax it and increase the price.

9/15/2008 12:04:31 AM

the market price per barrel:



sad part is that the regional price per barrel is not that low

9/15/2008 10:25:49 AM