CREEPING UP - AT 11:01 A.M. ET:  It isn't getting anywhere near the attention it deserves, but the price of gas at the pump is rising again, something that can only hurt any economic recovery.  As usual, our OPEC "allies" aren't being helpful, but they have armies of lobbyists in Washington explaining things away:

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al- Naimi said the price of oil will climb to $75 a barrel when demand picks up.

“We’ll get there eventually,” al-Naimi told reporters in Rome today where he will attend meetings with energy ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations. “The trick is keeping it between $70 and $80. It will be achieved as demand rises and the fundamentals are better than they are now.”

COMMENT:  The administration will use this as a further argument for its new standards for fuel efficiency.  What they don't tell you is that these new standards will result in smaller, lighter, less safe cars.  There are already authoritative stories in print predicting as many as 5,000 additional deaths a year as a result of this "progress."  Let me gently point out that we can lose as many citizens to accidents each year because of smaller cars as we have lost in the entire Iraq war.  How many demonstrations do you see?

May 24, 2009