Whoever smelt it dealt it

Prior to Ike's landfall, we noticed gas prices in these parts jump as high as $0.40/gallon (to $4.25/gallon). Which was ridiculous, but that's a whole other post. It was interesting to see how quickly the market jumped in price in response to the upcoming disaster - all within 24-48 hours. And the gas prices still have not fallen since Ike hit last weekend.

Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of oil dropped this week to near $90/barrel, and currently sits around $97/barrel (far from the highs we were seeing earlier this year above $140/barrel). If the markets can respond so quickly to a perceived "threat" (not minimizing the damage caused by Ike in the least, but at the time of the price jumps, it was all purely speculation), why can't they respond as quickly to fluctuations in the price of oil?

One of the last times oil was so cheap was about a year ago... and we were all concerned about gas pushing $3.00/gallon - those were the days.

It'd be nice if the markets could fall back on historical trends... if oil is less than $100/barrel, gas is around $3.00/gallon.

I'm just sayin'...