# Americans, didja wonder why gas was so expensive then so cheap? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2009, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896 "2009-01-12T10:19:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/1 "2009-01-12T10:19:34Z")
The CBS show _60 Minutes_ covered this last night. It’s all so very simple, but it will blow your mind. In a nutshell… > [@](#): > > The historic swings in oil prices last year were the result of financial speculation from Wall Street and not supply and demand. [Here’s the video](http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4713382n) where that statement is explained. It’s only 13:27, and WELL worth watching. I don’t have a personal dog in this fight. None of that affected me because we don’t own a car (by choice), but I thought those who were affected might be interested. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/2 "2009-01-12T10:55:33Z")
Come on now **Equipoise** you’ve been a Doper since 2000 and you don’t already know this? You’re making us look bad buddy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/3 "2009-01-12T10:58:37Z")
Know that it was Wall Street that drove gas prices up? It’s not something I thought about, since I haven’t bought gas for close to two decades. Gas stations are alien to me, unless I need a pop. If not that, what? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/4 "2009-01-12T11:02:40Z")
What **SHAKES** said. Seriously dude, supply and demand for _OIL_? Supply wasn’t interrupted and the demand was and is higher than ever. When prices for commodities fluctuate like this, it’s always intentional manipulation by the ‘market’. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/5 "2009-01-12T11:04:01Z")
Ah, ok 🙂 No, actually, not so fast. It says in that piece that at the time the prices were the highest, supply was at its highest, and demand had gone down (all those folks trying to sell their SUVs maybe). Or, er, god, I feel I’m being whooshed or something. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/6 "2009-01-12T11:07:52Z")
After a while, nothing surprises me anymore – including that probably nothing will be done to those who engaged in any wrong-doing – not even those who gave false testimony. If any of you saw _Paint Your Wagon_, you remember what happened to No Name City when Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood decided to mine the areas under the town for gold that had fallen through the cracks at the saloon, the bank, the mercantile, etc. When they had tunnels running everywhere beneath the surface of the town, the town collapsed. Do you get the feeling that someone has been digging tunnels beneath our country’s economy? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/7 "2009-01-12T11:11:47Z")
Yep. Interesting about _Paint Your Wagon_. I thought I saw it when I was a kid but don’t remember that. Damn. De-regulation is so over. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/8 "2009-01-12T11:32:08Z")
Quite off-topic in a sense, but here in Australia (where the supply of water has been privatised for a few years now) we have been suffering the effects of a once-in-a-millenium-drought. To address that, the various governments have instituted water-restrictions so that households and industries are actively encouraged to use less water…which has led to a dramatic reduction in water-consumption! Good stuff, yes? Well **no** , apparently, because the private water-suppliers have always based their billing on water-useage, and are screaming blue murder that their ‘profits’ have gone down as low as the reservoirs. Sucks to be them heh. They now want to charge different rates so that THEY make bigger profits whilst yer’ average punter still can’t water his garden or run the shower longer than 4 minutes a pop. IOW, supply and demand doesn’t always work with stuff. When you have the PTB, governments and big businesses winging and wheedling their way into the provision of essential products and services like water, power and fuel/s, you open the door to gross manipulation of provision of those services…to the inevitable detriment of those who can least afford it. /off soapbox now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/9 "2009-01-12T11:39:23Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > IOW, supply and demand doesn’t always work with stuff. When you have the PTB, governments and big businesses winging and wheedling their way into the provision of essential products and services like water, power and fuel/s, you open the door to gross manipulation of provision of those services…to the inevitable detriment of those who can least afford it. > > /off soapbox now. 😃 Is Australia turning Libertarian? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/10 "2009-01-12T11:45:27Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Is Australia turning Libertarian? Seems that way. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-didja-wonder-why-gas-was-so-expensive-then-so-cheap/480896/11 "2009-01-12T14:42:57Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > No, actually, not so fast. It says in that piece that at the time the prices were the highest, supply was at its highest, and demand had gone down (all those folks trying to sell their SUVs maybe). Well, **SHAKES** and **kambuckta** make it sound like _everybody_ knows it was speculators, but that’s not so. I’m not convinced on that point myself.