Oil is an international commodity. As such, it is a trailing indicator of the economy. Gas was cheap because the world economy collapsed. Oil went to $30 per barrel. That is a good thing only if you like pain. The price of gas could go even lower if we closed all the businesses and fired all the workers. Imagine that. Conservatives who don't understand supply and demand
some of what you say is true. what you fail to deal with are the other reasons for supply end issues. supply, thus price, can be manipulated by the supplier. that would primarily be OPEC. you might have adequate supply of oil, but have a choke point at the refining end. we do. you might have adequate refining capabilities, but regulations added by states slow down and add cost to refining.
one of the other reasons the cost of oil went down under bush is that he opened up drilling. since the cost of oil is based on speculation, the speculators saw increased oil coming onto the market in the future. this dropped the futures price.
the price of oil is not necessarily a trailing indicator of the economy, but it is a leading indicator of the anticipated supply and demand....which may or may not be based on the economy.
