re: #466 Sheila Broflovski

Is there any place online that gives a good explanation for the brief gas price plunge in 2008, which all the wingnuts are now claiming was the “normal” price of gas before Obama was elected?

From October 2008:

Commodities: U.S. light crude oil for November delivery settled down $5.43 to $66.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 16-month low.

Oil prices have been dropping since crude peaked at an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel on July 11. But the decline has been a mix of speculators leaving the market and investors betting that a slowing global economy means weaker oil demand. As a result, the falling oil prices haven’t helped stock investor sentiment much.

Gasoline prices fell another 3.1 cents overnight, to a national average of $2.858 a gallon, according to a survey of credit-card activity by motorist group AAA. It was the 35th consecutive day that prices have decreased. During that time, prices have fallen by nearly $1 a gallon.

A variety of oil services, metals and mining shares fell in tune with the drop in commodity prices. Dow components Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) and Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) all tumbled.