Mentioning the phrase gas prices is sure to get a conversation going around any dinner table. Add to that the increasing cost of other commodities, all blamed on the rising cost of fuel, and the conversation can turn into a full-on rant. The rantee is usually the big, bad oil companies that are raking in record profits, but are they truly to blame?

In this Commentary, Tiger in the tank or bats in the belfry, AIMS Founding President Brian Lee Crowley takes a look at oil pricing. He explains that “the price is driven by a host of objective and subjective factors, such as refining capacity, the proportions of different distillates one gets from a barrel of oil and the varying demand for each (they do not move in lockstep), current regional, national and continental supply and demand as well as the sum of beliefs about the future state of those things.”

To read the complete Commentary, click here.