Winter wonderland

Having got into an argument about pre-election gas prices with Dr. Steven Taylor, a reasonable fellow, but one who would prefer to believe in the vagaries of the "free market" when it comes to gas prices, despite the fact that the oil industry is anything but a free market, controlled as it is by an oligarchy of OPEC nations and cozy oil companies. While not claiming that they actually did lower prices, I presented a good deal of evidence that oil companies can and have manipulated futures markets in the energy sector. And, of course, price manipulation via supply control is exactly what OPEC is designed to do. This fell off my radar and I wish I had remember to notice gas prices around here, but I was prompted to noted it by Pam, who presented a couple of interesting photos from her neck of the woods, one from the day of the election:


And one from the day after the elections:


Elevens cents/gallon increase over night. While admittedly anecdotal, such behaviour, reported in a several places, though by no means everywhere, is nonetheless fascinating. The free market appears to have been working under the cover of darkness.

More generally, this performance has been delivered nation-wide. Gasbuddy delivers more extensive data on the US average price per gallon, which displays exactly the same behaviour as the single gas station prices above (click for larger view).

Leveling has been seen the last few days, but it should be interesting to keep an eye on this. We were told, even as prices were plummeting, that they would shoot up once again because winter was on the way.

(thanks to Pam for the pix)