Someone here characterized oil as "cheap." By what measure? Even at $20 - which it hasn't been for a long time - its cost is well above the cost of production in the Middle East. At almost $40, there are huge rents being claimed by elites in oil-exporting countries; being a major oil exporter almost guarantees the creation of a parasitical and corrupt stratum of rentiers. Gasoline should be a lot more expensive in the U.S. for sure - it should cost hundreds of dollars to fill the tank of an SUV - but the crude itself is hardly cheap.
Doug
