Higher Oil Prices Tax Consumers
Posted: January 3, 2008
With crude oil touching triple-digits again on Thursday, I have noticed at least a few articles mentioning the fact that higher oil prices mean higher prices for everything else, including … food.
Yes, indeed. The Dallas Morning News reports that “Already high oil costs are inflating the price of fuel and, in turn, the price of most consumer goods. Nearly everything we buy is either made of petroleum-based plastic, like toys, or wrapped in plastic, like lettuce.”
The Boston Globe quotes Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates LLC as saying “Higher gasoline and heating oil prices are going to cut into consumer spending, going to prompt increases in inflation because of the goods and services affected by energy, and we’ll see higher food prices.”
Even before this week’s triple-digit milestone was reached, the Associated Press reported last week that higher oil prices in 2007 “jacked up the cost of travel, clothing, beauty products and milk.”
So, the question is, when higher gas prices were in the news every other month in 2007, why was the blame for higher food prices placed on ethanol?
