eli5: why the current price of gas is much higher than in 2008 when the price of brent barrel was quite higher?
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If a gas station wants gas, it has to order it. If they think the price might be going up, they try to lock in a lower price early. Their supplier, of course, also has to guess what the price is going to be in the future when they’re filling orders, so they also raise their prices steadily for those delivery contracts. So the price of gas today is less based on the price of oil today, but rather on speculation. on what the price may be in the future (to exacerbate matters “futures” are bought and sold like stocks — so people are effectively bidding on the contracts, driving the prices up anticipating prices will rise.
So, speculation. People guessing and driving the price up.
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