The Fix is IN: Gas Barons Are a Bunch of Swindlers and Mercenaries

Did anyone happen to notice the spike in gas prices last week? It was hard not to.

In Michigan, the gas price went from $2.79 a gallon all the way up to $3.19 the next day, and then up to $3.39 a gallon the day after that.

The very next day, the price dropped to $2.99 a gallon. There it sits today.

Now, some will attribute it to Hurricane Katrina shutting down the oil pipelines in and around the Gulf Coast. That's what they want you to believe. The fact of the matter is that there is a backup of crude oil awaiting processing at the nation's refineries.

Oil speculators should be arrested and charged with crimes for what they're doing to our economy and to those people who have already had to make drastic life changes. It should have taken four to six weeks for the fuel that was at $70 a barrel to hit the market and affect prices. Didn't happen. Nope.

Here's what really happened: the robber barons raised their prices and soaked the consumer. Then they realized that there was going to be a gas price revolt at $3.39 a gallon and dropped the price 40 cents overnight.

And it's not just the oil barons who are "fixing" things. Some gas stations are definitely gouging. They deny it, but my boss was filling up the day the prices hit $3.39; he watched as an employee of the gas station walked outside the station with a pair of binoculars and looked at what the competition was getting for a gallon of gas ($3.39). He changed his sign to match theirs. He was at $3.29 a gallon, according to my boss. His receipt confirmed that part of his story; when I went by the station myself, the price was $3.39.

There is a difference in prices between wholesale gasoline and retail gas prices. The gas stations have some leeway in how much they purchase and sell their gas for. This is how business is done in the entire retail sector. Except with the oil companies and gas stations, it's one huge cabal to make more money.

So you'll have to excuse me if I don't go with the BS explanations that the oil companies and gas stations are putting forth on why a gallon of gas is so expensive. It's just more BS to get buried under.