Yeah, it's discouraging. For work I drive about 1300 miles per week. While some of it is reimbursable, my office trips are not. Between my wife and me, we're paying close to $200/week in gas.

Exxon, by the way, had record profits last year. 2007 will be big as well.

I remember an outcry about 10 years ago when gas prices had a sudden increase of about 20 cents. It seems now that I went from paying $2.12/gallon to $2.55 in a week or two.

I was listening to a news story on the radio during my commute, in which an oil company exec attributed the sudden rise in price to "summer demand" (at the time, my thermometer read 14 degrees). Also, he blamed instability in the oil producing region and the fact that a bomb went off close to where Dick Cheney was. How dumb do the oil companies think we are?

Anyway, with the increase in gas prices, we can expect a corresponding spike in the prices of consumer goods.