Skip to main content

Gas prices are getting boring

Is it just me or is anyone else getting bored with all the talk about gas prices, especially in the econ blogosphere? I mean, I'm not any happier than the next person about paying over $4.50 a gallon but I guess I just don't care anymore about why gas prices are so high (and seeing a bunch of different blog posts about whether it's due to speculation, all linking to the same debate going on between two other bloggers is just not interesting). I just want to know when other markets are going to catch up and provide good alternatives!

I hope to get back to posting more regularly soon...


Comments

  1. While I realize I am commenting on the very topic you seem to be slightly less than enthusiastic about, do you think the rapid increase in the price of oil has really accelerated the likelihood of seeing alternative fuel sources in the near future, or left it relatively at the same pace? I have heard many people in the oil business say that gasoline will probably never go back under the $3.50 mark.

    I also have a few more question as well; wouldn't it be smart for the government to increase the gas tax if the price in the world market ever fell significantly?, and two, will we start to see fairs of trains and similar transportation sky rocket to keep the level of passengers stable, therefore making practically the 2 most viable forms of transportation too expensive for the majority of Americans?

    I guess this leads me to my big question; should the government take over all oil companies or other major transportation markets? Whats your take on that question? I realize I asked many questions, but if you can only answer one, I would like to hear your opinions on that last one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt: Keep in mind that I know almost nothing about transportation markets so what I'm about to say is simply based on my own impressions and could possibly be based on completely wrong assumptions. There's a whole sub-field of economics that is concerned with these issues though and I'd certainly encourage you to ask others your questions.

    That said: I have no doubt that high gas prices are increasing the demand for alternative fuels, but I don't expect prices for trains and buses to 'skyrocket', partly because I think that, at least in California, people are more likely to turn to other types of transportation (like biking, carpooling, hybrids, etc.) for local transportation than to suddenly switch to public transportation in mass quantities. That might be less true elsewhere but California simply doesn't have the public transportation infrastructure - it's not like the east coast where, for example, it can actually be faster to take the train or subway to get around than to drive. Don't forget that trains and buses are already PUBLIC transportation and, especially in California, I think private industry will come up with good alternatives long before the government gets their act together enough to invest in better transportation infrastructure. If you're talking about larger scale transportation, like airlines, I think that yes, prices are going to rise (they already are for airlines) but they aren't going to 'sky rocket' because demand in those markets is more elastic (for example, more and more people are staying close to home for vacations instead of flying).

    I don't really know much about the oil industry but I'm not aware of any good reason for the government to take over oil companies. Given that the price of oil is determined by the world market and not domestic production, I can't imagine it would do much to the price. I think some believe the oil companies are raking in huge profits so if the government took over, those profits would be returned to consumers through lower prices but I don't buy it - it just is not in the long-term interest of oil companies to let prices get so high, for so long, that people start looking for permanent alternatives that could eventually eliminate our need for oil at all. I assume that by 'major transportation markets' you mean the airlines because local train and bus transportation is already public (Amtrak is sort of a hybrid - it's government owned but privately run, I think). I think an argument could be made for re-regulating the airlines, or drastically changing the way they are handled now. It certainly doesn't make any sense to me that the government keeps bailing out some of the big airlines without at least talking about re-regulating.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments that contribute to the discussion are always welcome! Please note that spammy comments whose only purpose seems to be to direct traffic to a commercial site will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

What are the costs?

I came across an interesting discussion about a 19-year-old intern who was fired from The Gazette in Colorado Springs for plagiarism. There appears to be some controversy over the fact that the editor publicly named the girl in a letter to readers (explaining and apologizing for the plagiarism), with some people saying that doing so was unduly harsh because this incident will now follow her for the rest of her career. I was intrigued by this discussion for two reasons - one, it seems pretty clear to me that this was not a case of ignorance (as I have often encountered with my own students who have no idea how to paraphrase or cite correctly) and two, putting aside the offense itself, I have often struggled with how to handle situations where there are long-term repercussions for a student, repercussions that lead the overall costs to be far higher than might seem warranted for the specific situation. As an example of the latter issue, I have occasionally taught seniors who need to p

What was your high school economics experience like?

As I mentioned in my last post , I am asking my Econ for Teachers students to reflect on their reading by responding to discussion prompts. It occurred to me that it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to share my thoughts on those issues here and see if anyone wants to chime in. For this week, the students were asked to read the California and national content standards , an article by Mark Schug and others about why social science teachers dread teaching economics and how to overcome the dread, an article by William Walstad on the importance of economics for understanding the world around us and making better personal decisions (with some evidence on the dismal state of economic literacy in this country), and another article by Walstad on the status of economic education in high schools (full citations below). The reflection prompt asks the students to then answer the following questions: What was your high school econ experience like? What do you remember most from that class? How do

When is an exam "too hard"?

By now, you may have heard about the biology professor at Louisiana State (Baton Rouge) who was removed from teaching an intro course where "more than 90 percent of the students... were failing or had dropped the class." The majority of the comments on the Inside Higher Ed story about it are supportive of the professor, particularly given that it seems like the administration did not even talk to her about the situation before acting. I tend to fall in the "there's got to be more to the story so I'll reserve judgment" camp but the story definitely struck a nerve with me, partly because I recently spent 30 minutes "debating" with a student about whether the last midterm was "too hard" and the whole conversation was super-frustrating. To give some background: I give three midterms and a cumulative final, plus have clicker points and Aplia assignments that make up about 20% of the final grade. I do not curve individual exams but will cu