One month before the US presidential elections and during the worst US stock market week in more than 70 years seems like a good time to visit gas prices. The first chart (courtesy of GasBuddy.com) shows the rise in gas prices in the US (blue), Canada (red) and how they have performed relative to crude oil prices (green) over the last five years.
While there have been some pretty wild ups and downs short term, this makes clear the long term rising trend in prices. Generally speaking, the more shallow the trend, the more sustainable, indicating that higher prices can safely be forecast for the foreseeable future.
This second chart (courtesy of InflationData.com) shows US retail prices (black) against their inflation adjusted prices (red).
This view, of the very long term, going back to 1918 for the first entry. The final figure shown was of gas at $3.22 per gallon in March, making the overall average 2008 to date figure $3.08 per gallon. Since it was completed before gas topped $4.00 in June and July of 2008, the final figure shows us equal to the adjusted cost of gas in 1981 and still slightly behind the initial “gasoline as luxury” prices.
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