It says here that the price of oil crossed $80 a barrel today. Yet gas prices have come down a bit lately during this run-up, and current prices aren’t nearly as high as they were mid-summer, when oil was below $70 a barrel (as I recall). No, I’m not saying there’s some conspiracy at the oil companies to fix prices.

I’m just saying that the relationship between the price of a barrel of oil and the price of gas at the pump is, to put it generously, a rather complex function that I have yet to hear explained in any reasonable way. I wish someone would, though. What we get in the media is facile and wrong–oil prices and gas prices don’t follow any obvious curve.

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