Brother Tin,
I was starting to think that I was ill-informed, now I realize just how little I understand the oil biz as it's crazy. Your right about the price of crude going through the roof, but it seems that that is being blamed on the shortfall of our refineries ??? I would think if our refineries couldn't keep up, crude would remain the same or fall a little, since we wouldn't be able to consume any more than what we already are :-/ But then I found this:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/...berg/bxcom.php

So now I'm at a loss as to understanding why crude oil prices are going up even though we can't consume anymore than we already are and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of it :-[ It's easy to see why gas prices are rising (in the short term), but why does it effect the crude oil ???

Is there a professor of economics around ???

I think I'll retract my bid for election now, since I feel too stupid to run ;D