Global Variance in the Price of Gas
Another riveting article title COMING AT YOU! I should write romance novels.
Anyhow, I know I write about oil and gas almost as much as I write about retail. Stories about fossil fuels tend to dominate financial news because fuel determines how much transport costs, and transport affects many businesses. Fuel prices can even affect how some businesses develop- back in January I wrote about the state of “brick and mortar” businesses. These businesses must routinely pay to have product shipped to stores all over the country. That can get pricey, and as such many retailers are exploring digitized content like e-books or MP3s which do not require physical delivery.
So, gas gets things from one place to another place. Great. But what makes gas cost more or less from country to country? CNNMoney.com posted a great article about why gas prices “at the pump” vary so much internationally. It can mainly be chalked up to government taxes or, alternately, government subsidies. Some countries like Norway tax their gas heavily (gas is currently $9.28 per gallon there). Other countries like Venezuela decrease the cost of gas for consumers (Venezuelans paid about 12 cents per gallon during the epic gas hikes of 2008). The United States falls between these two extremes.
