Dan Caplinger

It's interesting because there are so many different perspectives to look at this from.

From the perspective of the American consumer, things look pretty bad.

Gas prices where I live were around $2.80 a gallon in December.

They're up about $1 per gallon, up around $3.80.

I think that

Regardless of what the actual level is, that dollar increase is pretty consistent across the country.

It's interesting because a lot of folks have suggested that the U.S.

is insulated from the impact of this because we don't necessarily depend directly on Persian Gulf oil.

But when you look at some of the other countries that do depend more on Persian Gulf oil, they have not even seen the percentage price increases we have.

Korea was up about 15%.

Japan's up in the 15% to 20% area.

We're up closer to 30% to 35%.

It's interesting how the macroeconomics are playing out here.

The other thing, and this threatens to get a little bit wonky about futures markets and things like that.

So, oil futures are in an unusual situation right now, just for those who aren't familiar with this.

You can buy oil at a specific price at a specific point in time in the future.

And the prices will be different depending on when you want it.

If you want it at a high demand time, the price is going to be higher.

If you want it at a lower demand time, the price is going to be lower.

Right now, we have this huge disparity.