Have gas prices doubled under Obama?
Dave Weigel examines the claim that gas prices doubled under Obama:
This is a true statement: At the end of 2008, gas prices were half of what they are now. The twist is that the end of 2008 was also the apocalypse. The day that Obama was sworn in, the Dow plunged to 7,949. It’s now above 13,000 again. The month that Obama was sworn in, the economy shed around 600,000 jobs—the third consecutive month with a loss that size.
Three years ago, if you wanted to point to data and say “See? This is how Obama is failing us,” you had a lot to choose from, but you couldn’t choose gas prices. Today, you can’t really attack Obama on stock prices; the argument about unemployment is complicated, and involved discussion of the “real unemployment rate.” Instead, you have to argue that commodities of all kinds — gas prices especially — are more expensive because of Obama’s botch-ups.
As a more general point, any discussion of rising gas prices that does not include the words “China” and “India” is not a serious discussion. Though short-term fluctuations have many causes, the underlying story on gas prices is that the world has a limited supply of oil, but a growing supply of people who want to use oil. That makes prices rise.
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