The Depression in Oil

The other day I drove over to my favorite gas station to fill up. I say favorite because the station usually charges three or four cents less per gallon than the three stations at a closer intersection. And this time I was more than pleasantly surprised: regular gas, for cash, was just $1.999 a gallon.

That’s a price I haven’t seen in New York City or the New York suburbs since who remembers when. And last week, on a trip to that low-gas-tax nirvana known as New Jersey, where self-service stations are against the law, the attendant filled our tank for $1.699 a gallon. Happy days are here again. Or are they?