Anyone See a Pattern Here?

Yesterday I was listening to my favorite morning radio show, Young and Verna in the Morning, and Jeff Young had mentioned a pattern he believed to be true regarding gasoline prices. He felt that the prices would be low until the presidential election and then go up. He, or a listener, felt that it was a political practice to assist the election. Maybe.

It seems to me that over the last several years, that you can count on gas prices going up prior to the Memorial Day holiday, staying high through the travel months and then declining as the summer wanes. Am I the only one who has noticed this trend?

A possible political ploy. More likely oil companies taking advantage of the peak season of travel just like other members of the travel industry such as motels, airlines, buslines and the like. Though I must say I am suprised at the rate of the decline this fall, I think it's something we can count on as winter approaches.

Let's think about this for a second. Big oil is big business (not new news) that has a peak season as well as a low season. You can count on them to rise and fall with supply and demand just like anything else. And...though they are far from having a low profit margin, can be counted on to raise prices when demand is high and lower when demand is lower in order to increase business.

It's been on the news that people got creative over the summer and biked, hiked, hitched and did whatever it took not to drive. Ask those same drivers now if they are still using those alternative methods as much. Not as likely. Makes me wonder how low prices could get if winter permitted those alternative solutions to continue.