Today I just noticed that the price of diesel fuel just hit $4 per gallon in my town for the first time ever. I had heard about crude oil hitting $103 per barrel, so I expected it to happen soon, but it was still a shock to look at the sign and think about what this means in the overall big picture. Not only do Dodge trucks with Cummins engines run on the stuff, but practically all our products and foodstuffs require diesel for transport, or in farming, etc. This is bound to cause a price run-up on almost everything. And did you ever notice that fuel surcharges never seem to go away, even when fuel prices drop?

It seems like the oil-commodity speculators and suppliers grasp onto every tiny excuse to raise oil prices, whether it be refinery maintenance, cold weather, hot weather, storms anywhere, political unrest almost anywhere and so on. At the rate they’re going, fuel will be $10 per gallon or more in just a few years.

Of course, with billions of dollars up for grabs, nobody would ever be tempted to manipulate oil markets, like they did with the savings and loan and sub-prime lending fiascos, or Enron and electricity pricing, for example. Would they?

What affect have rapidly increasing fuel prices had on you and you family and business and how are you coping? Do you think energy prices are being manipulated? Where do you think all this is headed, and what should be done about it?