Thank goodness the Charlotte Capitalist waded into all the “investigation” of post-Katrina gas prices in Charlotte. I haven’t the strength to keep banging my head on the floor, trying to explain basic economics to fools. But, once again…
With the pipelines down, the Paw Creek terminal was down to a few days supply and some local stations did, in fact, run out of gas. This is a supply shock, not a conspiracy. Consumer behavior changed, too. Hoarding cropped up, aided and abetted by a certain local paper which advised the public on which containers to use for the purpose of gasoline hoarding. This was a demand shift.
Station operators were faced with two options: Jack prices up to deter sales and also try to account for future replacement cost of the fuel or sellout of gas, close down, and lose thousands of dollars in non-gas sales in the bargain. Which would you choose?
Toss in the fact that North Carolina has one of the highest gas taxes in the country, and of course Charlotte had one of the highest gasoline prices at the pump for a few days in the wake of Katrina.
Why are we still talking about this?
