Gas Gougers, Start Your Engines

Florida's governor arose from his tanning bed to engage in the populist pap politicians cannot resist.

Charlie Crist and a gang of governors, 22 in all, wrote a letter to Congress. They want hearings into the rising price of gasoline.

Go get 'em, guvnahs.

Washington will love you. It gives your elected brethren the opportunity to emerge from the brothels in which they sell their services to deliver sermons on the sins of greed.

The preferred outcome? Public pillorying of oil company executives and payment of penitence through higher taxes.

The populace will cheer, then pay that penitence through prices at the pump. Congress will distribute the loot to favored selfish interests. Our guardians will return to the study of virtue until awakened to the presence of more capitalists against whom similar action must be taken by putting arrows through the necks of taxpayers.

That's the racket.

As Florida's attorney general in 2005, Crist investigated gasoline price spikes. He concluded two big causes: the industry's practice of keeping inventories low and a shrinking number of suppliers.

The governor is familiar with methods of shrinking suppliers. Florida's regulation of insurers has shrunk the suppliers of that service to near zero. Prices rose accordingly.

As for inventories, businesses want them fit and trim, like Crist himself. That's the object. Inventory is expensive. It ties up capital. Business wants just-on-time delivery, not stuff stacked in storage. This keeps customers' costs low.

Crist says a gallon of gas averaged $2.86 in Florida a year ago and $3.10 today. That's up 8 percent.

What did he expect? The federal government expands M3 money supply about 11 percent annually. Oil is traded in dollars. More dollars in the oil market works like more dollars in any market, whether real estate or stocks.

Gasoline supply notwithstanding, once again we observe the debasement of our currency through federal monetary inflation, the creation of money and credit, the government's counterfeiting racket about which the political class utters nothing but praise.

For commoners, more dollars mean higher prices.

From April last year to April this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Granny Smith apples were up 18 percent.

Whole wheat bread, 19 percent.

Large grade A eggs, 26 percent.

Yet the federal government, for which lying has become an institutional practice, says price inflation is around 3 percent.

This keeps payments low to retirees. If you eat dirt, live in a cave and ride a donkey, you may retire in comfort.

If gasoline is up 8 percent, while Granny Smith apples are up 18 percent, why does Crist not demand an investigation into Granny gouging?

While he's at it, he can investigate why Florida fleeced the public of 10.9 percent more in tax revenue over the fiscal year that ended last June. He can investigate the robbery of property owners through raised real estate taxes.

He can investigate why federal tax collections are up 11.2 percent year-to-date.

Let's ask why government touts higher tax collections as a good thing when every debased dime came from Americans with grocery bills whose income on average did not go up half that.

Let's investigate why government extracts more profit from gasoline than the oil companies themselves. In Florida, drivers get hit for 51 cents a gallon.

Let's investigate why the U.S. House of Ill Repute passed a bill to curb gas gouging, a license for government prosecutors and attorneys general to further tap oil companies so drivers can pay for it at the pump.

Let's investigate Florida's patriotic stance against drilling for oil and gas off its shoreline.

Yes, let's investigate.

Let's unmask the guilty gougers.

Phil Lucas is executive editor of The News Herald in Panama City, Fla. Contact him at plucas@pcnh.com. To find out more about Lucas and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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