Was it just a couple of months back when local TV news treated the increases in gas prices as a major story, a crippling story, a story with lots of !!!! marks and CAPITAL LETTER headlines and Sonorous Voices? I mean, the cost of a gallon of gasoline was nearing the $4 mark, and gee whiz, that had to mean somethning really baaaad. Er, right? Well, it's now July and gasoline prices have fallen - a lot. OK, it's still over three bucks a gallon in many places, but nobody seems to be paying attention now that the numbers are sliding now down instead of skyrocketing up. (The federal government's latest survey has a gallon of self-serve regular in L.A. average $3.116 a gallon, down from $3.153 a week ago and $3.381 on May 28.) A study in Foreign Policy magazine provides some much-needed perspective on pump prices - specifically that they're all over the map, depending on subsidy and taxation policies. Filling the 13.2-gallon tank of a 2007 Honda Civic could be as cheap as $1.06 in Turkmenistan and as expensive as $93.98 in Turkey. In the U.S., it's $31.42, a relative bargain.

COUNTRY COST
--Turkmenistan $1.06
--Venezuela $1.45
--Iran $4.49
--Saudi Arabia $8.05
--Indonesia $28.51
--United States $31.42
--China $34.45
--Mexico $36.96
--Russia $38.41
--Brazil $62.96
--France $73.92
--Britain $81.44
--Turkey $93.98