This is because todays politician does not understand a market driven economy.
As a matter of fact they don't understand economy period.
Don Henderson

The part about the economy that most politicians understand is the money.

Sonny Perdue -- what a stupid hick.

"Anti-gouging" is popular because people want some kind of protection from "profiteering."

A $1 per day price hike is not justified based on supply or demand. the oil pipelines are not yet drained. When they stop production and supply is affected - at the customer end of the pipeline - prices should naturally rise. In the meantime sell what is already in the tanks.

Prices jumping in anticipation of a potential shortage of supply is done simply because they can.

Right? Fair? Baloney! It is all about having something people want, whether it is a rational sense of urgency that we must buy gas before they run out, or not.

Just sit still and watch prices match the perception that we have an oil shortage.

Larry, this is true. And you know it also applies to grocery prices. The suppliers get a hint that something might be wrong and they go up just because they can.

People do not care if price gouging occurs if they have plenty of money. They do not look at the poor because most of them could care less if they lived or died. That kind of elitism
is the same thing Henry County does. The elitist may have the money to survive these times but they appear to be morally bankrupt.
Dark Knight

Price control orders and legislation only serve to make some consumers feel better until the supply runs dry. That supply runs dry quicker, as the merchant cannot adapt to the circumstances. In a truly free market, the final gallon of gas would never be sold, as the price would go high enough for that gallon that it would be cheaper to seek out alternatives to the energy. The article on the front page over at unitedliberty.org has a very good example of how supply and demand works, if I do say so myself.

Well, I've been stuck at the house all day today, thanks to Sonny Perdue.

Because he has not allowed the market to work, all the gas stations around me are out of fuel. If the market would have been allowed to work, perhaps people would have only filled up a few gallons to get them through the weekend.

Thanks Sonny! It is great that there are geniuses like you and Hugo Chavez protecting us from evil corporations!

This scenario is the same as we had when Katrina came ashore. It will play itself out. There may be more stations without gas this time because of the panic of people over buying. It is like in the winter when they mention snow the bread and milk aisle at the grocery store becomes empty.
Will people ever learn how the system works? No. They will always be led to the altar and be told to drink the koolaid. The Governor and even the President's ideas of not allowing the free market to work are what they seem to do best in times of trouble. But I remember the days when gas prices didn't go up because of a hurricane. And there were some very bad hurricanes of the past; Camille and Betsy for example. Gas was 32 cents a gallon before the storm and 32 cents a gallon after the storm. But that was before the oil magnates and the government entities had figured a way to make a whole lot of money. Today it is called supply and demand. Less supply more demand. There is not just one place to put the blame it is everyone who has added to the problem in their own way. For those who are on fixed incomes and who don't make much money they know what it is like to have to sit at home. It hurts those who have a little more and don't understand how to sit for a while. Our lives are made up of the meaningful and the meaningless. Don't get trapped in between. I don't like paying what we have to pay for gas at all. I do know to that when oil was nearly $150 a barrel gas went up to over $4 a gallon. Oil has dropped to around $100 a barrel and we are still paying around $3.70 a gallon before the storm. When oil was $100 a barrel before gas was around $2.90 a gallon. Keeping the price up is part of the game. I personally have sit down and checked how far it is from point A to point B and just buy enough gas to go on that trip. I watch those folks who like to start off like they are at the drag strip and they don't realize how much fuel they just wasted, but it's their money. Well, I know the things that I have discussed are not liked by many of those who read it but that's fine. Expressing one's views is what it's all about. Have a nice evening friends.
The Doctor

It is early Sunday morning here in our wonderous land.
May we give thanks to the Lord for allowing us to see one more day. May we ask Him to aid those in dire need in the storm stricken area of East Texas and Western Louisiana. May we also thank him that the storm was not as bad as it could have been. Ask Him to help us through these trying times as we are struggling through our worlds in hope of a better tomorrow. Maybe with a prayer of gratitude He will guide us in the right direction as we walk through our trials to see a better way. Life is so precious and having the burdens of the world around us is so much to bare but He has bared it all for us.
Hopefully everything will get better in the days and weeks to come with the gas prices only time will tell. Have a nice and blessed Sunday to all.
The Doctor

Regardless of the spin each of you want to use to support your position, a .60 price jump is ridiculous. If the wheat farmers told us to expect a shortage of wheat, should we then expect the price of bread already sitting on the shelves in Kroger to go up?

I'm amazed at how many people seem to have a faulty understanding of supply and demand. Jason is right here that the natural market dynamic would dictate that prices rise at a time when supply (even just local supply - truckloads of gas in Texas do not constitute a part of the fuel supply in Georgia!) is being squeezed. This natural rise in fuel prices would make it too expensive for everyone to fill up their tanks, and would help to stretch the supply so more consumers can get at least *some* gas. Not allowing the price to rise makes the fuel artificially cheap and results in real shortages, and is therefore bad policy. Merchants raise prices in response to supply and demand, and in anticipation of higher costs -- I'll post again later to explain this dynamic to the folks on here that don't seem to be "getting it" - but for now, trust me - if you were a merchant, you would raise your prices to cover anticipated future costs as well - if you were any good at math, that is.

OK, here's the 5 cent lesson on micro-economics. Suppose you are a merchant, and you sell widgets. You sell 20 widgets a day, and you order 1000 widgets a week at $10 per widget. To cover your overhead costs and make a fair profit, you sell these widgets for $15 each.
On the day you get your new stock in, a widget shortage is announced; you check with your suppliers, and while no one can say for sure, the best guess is that your widget cost will be $20 per widget the next time you order. So, at $20/widget, the cost of your next 1000 widgets will double, to $20,000. Where will you get the extra $10,000 you will need to pay for those widgets? You have two choices: (A) you *could* do what many commenters here seem to advocate, and continue to sell your widgets for $15 - but you'll have to take a $10,000 loss to cover your new widget stock, and the price on your next batch of widgets will have to be $25 to preserve your margins. OR, (B) you could raise the price on your current widgets - the ones you bought for $10 - to $25 NOW. If you do that, you can save the extra $10 per widget on the 1000 you just got, which will cover the cost of the new widgets you'll be buying at $20 each. Then, if the price doesn't go all the way up to $20, you can have a widget sale and reduce the price when the new batch comes in, thereby returning the extra $ to your customers. Which would you do? Not surprisingly, most merchants would rather do (B) than (A). Those that consistently choose do do (A) tend to eventually find themselves in bankruptcy.
So now you know why the price of the item on the shelf ALWAYS goes up to reflect the anticipated replacement cost of that item, NOT the price at which the item was originally purchased. N'est ce pas?

The mkt wouldn't dictate the .05 you're charging for your lesson in economics, but demand does allow you to charge exactly what I paid for it.

In your analogy, you're comparing widgets to widgets...In my analogy, I'm comparing wheat, a raw material in bread to the price of bread on the shelves. A retail shelf price reflects every stage of production, handling and distribution, and the mark-ups added at each stage. A simple anticipation of wheat prices going up, or yet a shortage, wouldn’t have an immediate (i.e. within 2-4 hours) impact on the price of bread.

I’m well aware that retail outlets charge the anticipated replacement cost of their goods. What we have going on right now with the gas prices is the stations and their supplies are trying to manage their gas levels because prices are dropping – re: the raw material used in the gas is dropping. Since prices are dropping, these gas stations and their suppliers have been keeping lower reserves to take advantage of the costs (conversely, when prices are rising, they fill up there tanks). So now, here comes Ike, potentially interrupting the supply line. The news media starts a frenzy and people start to panic and using way more gas than they need. The market, i.e. the suppliers, dictate the price increase so that those who really needed the gas would buy it. So the market, not the government and not through price gouging, is dictating the cost of gasoline.

All of that being said, it’s still ridiculous to see a .60 jump in gas. Ike was known about two weeks ago. My comment wasn't about simple economics as it was common sense.

Actually, your comment is based on emotion that lacks any rationality.

No one likes to see the price of gas go up. I drive a Jeep that gets 12 miles to the gallon. So, it impacts me. I cut my driving and I buy gas when I need it. I don't panic and run to the store to contribute to a run on artificially low prices that will end up drying out the supply.