I have a friend who is in the gas and oil speculation business. He's Texan, Republican, and a closet case. He amuses me a great deal, because he's pretty smart and well educated, but whenever we have a serious conversation about how his trade hurts working Americans and spurs illegal wars and occupations, he gets typically Republican and starts talking about anything other than the blood on his hands. Anyway, I was thinking of him yesterday as I spent $50.00 to put gas in my car. I wonder how long people will be willing to hand over their food and rent money to people like my friend, who has so much money just now he can hardly spend it all. And he's about to get richer:

he average cost of self-serve regular gasoline rose about 18 cents per gallon nationwide over the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

Heh. I knew it. Caveat: I'm no economist. But I defy anyone to refute this wonderful analysis. Don't tell me about the fucking 'invisible hand,' econogeeks. Love to my rational acting friends, but this stinks (graphs and links at original post):