An Instapundit reader asks:
How come gas has gone up about 50 cents since January and we don’t hear the media complaining about the little people?
Just wondering…
And the Professor responds that it “Doesn’t fit the narrative.”
Well, in a sense it does: when gasoline prices were at their lowest in December, Tom Brokaw of NBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, the troika of east coast establishment liberalism, all called for the Office of the President Elect to raise gasoline taxes once in office. (You can see Brokaw in action about 6:30 into this edition of Silicon Graffiti.) So while they’d rather have higher gas prices benefiting the federal government’s coffers, all three news sources are perfectly OK with the average commuter (read: their customer base) getting soaked at the pump. And as candidate Obama told MSNBC last June, he’s happy with high gas prices as well as a deterrent to automobile usage (such as driving to work to help grow the economy), as long as the increase is in the form of a “gradual adjustment” to the higher prices.
Is that happening now, or is it simply the normal ebb and flow of oil prices? If it’s the former, it’s a positive development in the eyes of both the legacy media and its favorite son, and good news is no news.
No conspiracy here, I think. January’s prices were at the very bottom of the crash in gas and oil prices from the peaks in mid-2008, and things are just climbing back up to what they were in 2004-ish. There’s a chart over at MSNBC that illustrates this pretty well:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/
This might be a good point to quote Grey’s Law: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”
Just watch “O” and company grin and lick their chops. They get a twofer: gas prices go up and so does their tax take, always a good thing for the government spenders; and, he gets to blame all of it on the greedy oil companies. Oh, and he can then raise their income taxes as well as taxes on gasoline.
Oil prices are going up because of Obama, but not directly.
Obama is publicly approving of plans which expand the budget deficit to unsustainable levels (> 6% of GDP) for long periods of time.
People with money, including the Chinese, are coming to the conclusion that US debt is not a safe investment. They are looking for alternatives. To some extent, they’ve decided that commodities are an alternative.
Yesterday, the Treasury had a harder time than anticipated selling its latest round of treasury securities. Extrapolate out 2 years when deficits might be even bigger, and inflation is starting to come back and imagine what debt auctions will be like.
Commodities might end up being another bubble before this is all over. It will be a bubble of Obama’s (indirect) creation.
James
Ed – there has been no increase in the Federal gas tax since Obama took office…it just feels like there has been. You have, however hit on the narrative that the media and the administration love: profits bad/taxes good. Just wtf are the going to tax if there are no profits?
Spinoneone – The Federal gas tax is a flat tax, not a sales tax. The Federal take on a gallon remains the same regardless of the price. Higher prices generally mean lower sales. Lower sales mean lower gas tax revenue. Lower gas tax revenue means roads and bridges don’t get repaired. The Federal gas tax, btw, is a trust fund dedicated to only transportation uses…it doesn’t go into the general revenue. It can, however, be used for pork like the vacant Murtha Memorial Airport and Cricket Sanctuary.
There is a problem with setting an artificial price and taxing up to it: Government’s addiction to money streams.
For axample, let’s suppose the Federal government taxed the difference between real gas prices and $3/gallon. This year they might be raking in 80 cents per gallon. However, if the real price goes up to $2.80 next year, their windfall would be only a quarter of the prior year’s. You know they already spent the 80 cents in next year’s budget. So now they have to tax something else to address the shortfall.
James, I could buy your analysis. I was listening to the financial talking heads on tv the other day discussing the rise in oil in the face of a glut on the market. I didn’t pay attention to their theories. After what he’s done to Chrysler bondholders, I wouldn’t buy a Treasury bond either. Not like I’ll have any money to if I wanted anyway.
“Gas price” is neocon code for “black.” You are a racist bigot.
It’s May…..don’t summer blends start?
Prices usually go up when they do……..
The rise in prices is caused by a drop in the value of a dollar, Teleprompter and company have effective printed trillions since January, the dollar has fallen sharply. Thus oil prices (in US dollars) have gone up. Not a tax increase, just our money tanking because it is being printed at record pace while our economy is shrinking.
Can anybody recall the Weimar Republic? I’m sure the Chinese can.
Mary Happy Elk, your infantile paranoia is laughable and pathetic. I’m sure you have your hate all rationalized, but do the adults a favor and haunt Daily Kos where your kind of venom and stupidity are welcomed.
I thought Mary Happy Elk’s comment was a joke. I laughed.
“Gas price” is neocon code for “Native-American.” You are a racist spigot.
So while they’d rather have higher gas prices benefiting the federal government’s coffers, all three news sources are perfectly OK with the average commuter (read: their customer base) getting soaked at the pump.
But if the higher prices are driven by demand, and therefore benefit the oil companies.. you know, the ones who actually shoulder the risk and effort to produce the wealth in question…. all of a sudden it’s all about the “average commuter” (and “corporate greed”. Why doesn’t anybody ever talk about “government greed”?)
All the narrative fit to print:
Ummm, urrr, well you see; low gas prices were due to the Bush unbridled free market ideology caused economic slow down… hence the 50 cent rise is GOOD sign.
I should apply at the NYTimes.
MARY HAPPY ELK
#9
And you, madam, are a moron ! Go away….
S.M.