Over the past month, the fluctuating price of gasoline has provided a good example of Jacob Sullum’s observation that economic conventional wisdom tends to find the negative side of anything and everything, even the cardinal opposite of something previously pronounced “bad,” e.g.: “Rising prices are bad, and so are falling prices … Rising oil prices are bad, and so are falling oil prices … Consumer spending is bad, except when it’s good.”

You didn’t need anyone to tell you that the high gasoline prices this year were bad; we consumers knew it. But did you know the seemingly welcome return of gasoline prices well below $2/gallon was bad? As WRAL reported on Dec. 9, the prospect that gasoline might hit $1 a gallon after reaching a national record high of $4.114/gal. on July 17 — well, it “could be a problem” (if your main goal in life is forcing people to buy into “more fuel efficient, greener technology,” such as ethanol, which really is bad).

Well, now it seems gasoline prices are climbing up a little again. And that’s bad. WRAL today finds people “jittery about a return to those $100 fill-ups.” Which were good, but now they’re bad.