Oil and gas don't mix

Well, today anyway. Oil prices skyrocketed on the same day the government's weekly gasoline survey had the average price in the L.A. area falling by another eight cents or so, to $3.68 a gallon. It was the 14th straight week that gas prices had fallen (all told, roughly a buck a gallon). Pump prices don’t necessarily go in lockstep with oil prices, and Monday was a very unusual trading day (a WSJ MarketBeat post was headlined "Oil of Oy Vey"). That said, it’s a good bet that gas prices are going up – bad news because those 14 weeks of cheaper gas have been one of the few bright spots for the local economy. Of course, the world has gotten so cockeyed that what we consider good news – a drop in the price of gasoline – is actually bad news because it just means that there’s not enough demand.