Gas Prices 101

Joel Stein in the LATimes:

It's not that I trust oil companies. These are people who are still trying to outsmart us with that 0.9 of a penny trick. But the idea that greedy oil execs are just taking our gas money and spending it on hunting trips with Dick Cheney isn't true. The profits are going to the masses of people who own mutual funds that hold oil stocks, only a small portion of whom are rich enough to go on hunting trips with Dick Cheney. ...

Prices fluctuate. That's the deal with this capitalism thing. When gas was selling at $1 a gallon in the summer of 1999, we didn't demand that the Senate investigate why prices were so low. We were too busy running through gasoline-spewing sprinklers and drinking gasoline wine in a gasoline haze.

It's a funny, funny piece. The only thing he didn't guffaw out loud about are the bozos who complain about high gas prices while driving to the "No more blood for oil!" rally.

p.s.: Thank God Robert Scheer is gone from the LAT and Joel Stein is on board. Funny, self-depreciating liberals I can live with.