If you have filled up your car in the past few weeks, it won’t be news to you. While inflation continues to cast a long shadow over the economy, prices for all goods and services continue to rise. Including gasoline ,, whose price set a new record Thursday. The national average for gas prices was $4. 418 on Thursday — but that’s not all.
Previous all-time highs? These records were set Tuesday and Wednesday, just two days prior. In collective terms, according to Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, Americans are paying 32 cents more per gallon at the pump now than they were a month ago. That’s tantamount to paying $125 million more on gasoline every day now compared to last month, per De Haan.
Another record-breaking
This comes at a time where inflation and the lingering pandemic effects are causing all manner of disruptions and dislocations in the economy. Those negative effects include everything from labor shortages and supply chain interruptions, to the scarcity of some crucial grocery products (like baby formula).
The high gas prices trickle down to customers in other ways. Diesel prices are also at record highs right now. This might seem absurd to you since you don’t own a truck. But what soaring diesel prices do is make it more expensive to transport products. It makes it more costly for retailers or warehouses to ship the products. It also makes it more costly for consumers to ship them.
Energy economist Phil Verleger told CNN that until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we’d “never seen anything like this. The (fuel) market is completely distorted
Gas prices near me
How can you cope with the problem of “gas prices near me?” and find the answer? You can use mobile apps like GasBuddy. This app makes it simple to find real-time prices for gas in any given area. You can also filter your search results by qualifying terms like gas station brand and payment method.
Other GasBuddy filtering choices include whether the gas station has an available restroom, and whether the location is open 24/7 or not. After you have made your decision, you can start looking at reviews and ratings.
Does the president control gas prices?
We should also mention, and it shouldn’t surprise you, that all of this has a political component.
President Biden can control policies that could nudge gas prices in one direction. But it’s erroneous to assume there’s the executive equivalent of a big re