The whole idea of the poster whom I quoted was to give a rough and pragmatic estimate of the relation between gasoline prices and the price of crude oil.
The actual relationship is not arithmetic, but rather a shifting concatenation of refinery charges, taxes, shipping expenses, wages, bargaining, temporary dislocations, a little speculation, international politics, domestic politics, and so forth.
Anyone who imagines that I was stating that you divide 42 into the price of crude oil and get the price of a gallon may have had the fleeting satisfaction of considering me a fool, but that's about it.
Roughly speaking, gasoline at $5.75 a gallon can justify crude at $200, if it is permissible to to return to the main point. |
