George, apropos of your post, I had seen that cartoon by Dwane Powell and considered posting it, but I couldn’t tell whether the cartoon was promoting the idea of a gasoline price conspiracy or spoofing it. It does both equally well:
The rhetoric ? ACME Gasoline Price Setter, Bowels of the White House, Target: Nov. 7 ? is so overblown as to suggest parody.
But it could be that only to someone with any knowledge of economics could a cartoon featuring an “ACME Gasoline Price Setter” appear to spoof the idea of an electoral price conspiracy. A recent, very irresponsible Gallup poll found that when given the option, a large proportion of the people in America who answer pollsters’ questions will opt for the conspiracy choice:
42 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush administration “deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall’s elections.” Fifty-three percent of those surveyed did not believe in this conspiracy theory, while 5 percent said they had no opinion.
Hey, while we’re on the subject of markets and elections, I have been watching the elections futures markets, and for nearly two weeks the Bid/Ask on InTrade.com for GOP retaining control of the U.S. House has been above 50 cents (currently it’s 56.9/57.0).
