March 3, 2008
WSJ: Supply-Demand Thingy Works!
As crude-oil prices climb to historic highs, steep gasoline prices and the weak economy are beginning to curb Americans' gas-guzzling ways.In the past six weeks, the nation's gasoline consumption has fallen by an average 1.1% from year-earlier levels, according to weekly government data.
[...]
This time, however, there is evidence that Americans are changing their driving habits and lifestyles in ways that could lead to a long-term slowdown in their gasoline consumption.
The article then points out that a rally in crude prices has kept this from feeding back into lower gas costs, so don't reprint the textbooks just yet.
I point it out because I see a new promising free market solution to our soi disant oil addiction every week, and yet the insane calls for gub'mint solutions come every day.
I think Economics textbooks will be updated in a few years to include the folly of subsidizing corn-based ethanol. A corn-producing state has two powerful Senators, one in either party, so the government throws [insert magnitude here]s of dollars at a "solution" which costs more, requires more energy, and emits more greenhouse gases -- a policy trifecta!