Don't expect gas prices to "tank" anytime soon. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.) Today I learned that Americans live in a distorted world when it comes to gas prices. The average price of gas across Europe is over $8.00/gallon, double what it currently is in the US. (And one place in Germany is over $55.00.) In other words America, gas prices have nowhere to go but up.
When you triple the money supply and reduce interest rates to zero, you can't conclude that the price of gas will triple; it's much more complicated than that. For example, in 2006, when gold was about $700/ounce, a gallon of gasoline cost just 10 gold cents. With gold currently priced at about $1,500/ounce, a gallon now costs about half that. (Austrian economist George Reisman called it exactly.)
So, even if it's painful, Americans shouldn't be shocked if gas prices double from where they are now. In fact, it leads one to the question: why aren't gas prices higher in the US? Does it have something to do with oil sales being denominated in United States dollars? Isn't it obvious what is contributing to the $4/gallon gas prices?
Gasoline prices are setting records across Europe and exceeding $4 a gallon in California as the rise in crude oil caused by the conflict in Libya punishes companies and consumers.
Households are cutting back on travel, cinema visits and groceries in the U.K., where prices jumped to 130.68 pence a liter ($8.06 a gallon) yesterday, according to research from the Automobile Association, Britain's largest motoring organization. Prices set records in the Netherlands and Italy today. The current average U.S. gasoline price is near a two-year high at $3.81 a gallon, according to the AAA website...
In Italy, gasoline prices reached 1.544 euros a liter and diesel climbed to 1.438 euros a liter ($8.17 a gallon), according to a chart published by web energy daily Quotidiano Energia. Gasoline prices in the Netherlands reached a record 1.697 euro a liter from 1.692 euro in June 2008, according to Paul van Selms, head of UnitedConsumers, a lobby group for consumers in the Netherlands.
The average price for super-grade gasoline in Germany, Europe's largest economy, was 1.55 euros per liter today, close to the 1.58 euro record from 2008.
Drivers in California are paying more than $4 a gallon for premium grade, according to AAA.
Record Gasoline Grips Europe While California Faces $4 a Gallon
What did you learn recently?
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Apr 26, 2011 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=539
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