FINALLY, a pearls before swine comic strip that reminds me of the “glory days” of comic strips from the days when newspapers existed in a physical form: a comic strip that is child-friendly by way of teaching the “reader” a new vocabulary word!!!! Yay!!!! Dan aka…
LOS ANGELES — A $50 million settlement over price gouging at the pump means some Californians are now eligible for a little money back.
In July, the California attorney general announced the settlement with three gasoline trading firms that allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta.
A lawsuit brought in 2020 by the Department of Justice alleged that the companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance “to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,” officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas.
The settlement does not include an admission of fault from the trading companies.
“Market manipulation and price gouging are illegal and unacceptable,” Bonta said, "particularly during times of crisis when people are most vulnerable.
As part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea’s SK Trading International have agreed to pay the total amount of $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million will be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act.
If you filled up your gas tank between Feb. 20 and Nov. 10, 2015, in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and/or Imperial counties, you may be eligible for payment.
No information has been made available on the amount each claimant might receive.
To qualify for a settlement payment, you must submit a claim online or fill out a form and mail it by Jan. 8, 2025.
To fill out the form you’ll need to provide your name, address, and driver’s license. The form will also ask you which counties you purchased gas in during the 10-month period in 2015.
When I was a kid, my dad ran one of three lumberyards in a smallish town (approximately double what the town really needed). My mom would call around and ask what they were charging for one item or another (gallon of paint, pound of bright 16d nails, dozen 2×4s 8 feet long…) so he could set a competitive price. Of course their spouses all called around for the same purpose. He explained that it was perfectly legal to do that: Anybody, including your competitor, can come into your store and check what you are selling for what price. But what would NOT be legal would be an agreement among the three managers to set prices higher than normal. I understood it easily at the age of 10 and still do.
Gas stations can do the same thing of course. Though there are very few who set their own prices, because their supplier / brand does that.
No conspiratorial meetings are required for retail gas prices to be (almost) identical. First, and most obviously, they post their prices on signs for all to see. Second, if they’re busy, prices go up — and vice versa. Many consumers are price-conscious, so gouging is difficult anywhere there are competing sources.
Rat is economically illiterate. Yes, price-fixing will lead to similar pricing. But no, similar pricing isn’t evidence of price-fixing, because normal competition will also tend to result in everyone offering the product for about the same price (since any business trying to charge more than surrounding businesses will soon see their sales drop as customers go "screw this, we’re not buying from the overpriced shop).
Competition leads to most businesses keeping their prices close to that of their competitors, at least for identical products (one gallon of gas is about the same as any other), it will differ more for products which aren’t exactly the same from place to place (like a premium hamburger vs a Big Mac).
As long as there is a “corporatocracy”, yes, they will always fix things to their advantage. Price gouging is the American way these days. On the other hand, most of us here have a place to live and food on the table, so that’s a step ahead of the majority of people.
Solution approach time. Not a comic suggestion, but maybe Pastis can come up with an angle?
What if there was a progressive profits tax linked to monopolistic market share? Call it pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation. Detect problems in several ways, but mainly (1) Lack of choices for customers, and (2) Complaints from wannabe competitors who want to offer more choices, but are blocked from entering the niche.
I remember “gas wars” back in the 1960s, where competing gas stations, often within sight of each other, would keep lowering their prices. The lowest I remember is 22¢ a gallon. I wonder why you never see gas wars anymore… I’m guessing that it maybe that gas stations’ gas prices are fixed at the corporate level? Or that the gas station model is completely different now: gas stations now are almost always attached to a “convenience store” (where the real profit is generated). Gas stations back then were almost always attracted to a garage where work can be done on vehicles. The only “convenience” products sold were candy, cola, coffee and cigarettes.
Not like that in my area either. Gas prices range nearly $1 from low to high. There are places where gas stations next to each other differ by 20 to 30 cents per gallon.
These comments show our educational system has been an utter failure. Economic illiteracy abounds. Of course, Mr. Pastis has a conspiratiobal mind. He’s very funny, but much better when he sticks to the everyday foibles of humans (like most of these comments). Try Words and Numbers podcast.
Market convergence… same product, same process, same distribution. You can expect the prices to be about the same. The truth is that every drop of oil and every oil well is different from the next. They differ in production costs but that makes the calculation difficult. So, everyone uses references like WTI, Brent, and OPEC, depending on the market, for its base material cost and adds along the production/distribution chain. The other factor is market offer. If everyone around you offers at a certain price, you don’t want to be the most expensive. With a bottom limit, based on estimated costs calculated from the same references, and a top limit, based on market offer, convergence is (could be) expected. Oil is a complex market with a limited number of players and a long chain of production/distribution. It’s not the same for meat or farm products or other markets where convergence could happen eventually but it’s too difficult to reach.
One solution is becoming independent of Middle Eastern oil and even being able to sell our excess to friendly allied countries. Drill, baby, drill. Also employs thousands of Americans, fuels the economy and fights inflation. God Bless America!
Gas prices reflect 3 things: (1) government regulation/taxes (2) availability (3) competitionSince the government’s actions determine the first two, the oil companies must deal with the third. In other words, the oil companies deliver the lowest price possible through competition, not “price fixing”. The government is WAY more responsible for fixing the price of a gallon of gasoline with its energy policy.
25 years ago I lived in Northwestern MI. Starting Memorial Day weekend, all of the gas stations within 30 miles of where I lived raised their prices on Friday, then lowered them on Tuesday
Not sure to what degree you can blame the stations. Every state has a gas tax which each station much charge (and it varies from state to state so all stations in state X will be below state Y). And stations have to pay for the gas they sell (overhead). Unless you’re located by a gas station or some other “must fill up” spot you need to stay competitive with the stations around you so prices in areas will often stay close (see Adam Smith). Example of price-fixing above was by the gas distributors, not the stations who were sold the over-priced gas and had to pass the expense on.
If your supermarket has a gas station, use the “Jenny Song” phone number. Particularly good if you have an upscale neighborhood’s area code.
I had one for Safeway registered in my name for years, considered it a “community card”, and fully expected it to be used for gas, just like the nice people who used it when buying groceries EARNED the points. Some don’t want a loyalty card, or are visiting from an area without Safeway, whatever.
Only I could convert gas rewards (into free items) so it was quite a nice deal even if I never used the gas rewards. I no longer have it but use other area codes and often get $1 off per gallon.
You might be able to see if there are rewards ahead of time, by asking the gas attendant or by going into the store and using that number to buy a small item. Tally shows on Safeway (Albertson’s affiliates) receipt.
In my town in north-central Arizona, a state that has prices that tend to run higher than the national average, we had prices per gallon around $3.35.9 for regular unleaded. Then a somewhat seedy little-noted gas station/convenience store rebranded as a Sinclair station—among the first I’ve seen anywhere in Arizona—and dropped its price to $3.09.9. The local gas stations have started dropping their prices to $3.29.9 or so. Yesterday I checked the Sinclair again, expecting the low price was just a short-term promotional fluke. Now $2.99.9. I haven’t paid that cheap since a cross-country drive a year ago, in Iowa or whatever. The larger Circle K across the street at $3.25.9 is still busy, so there’s probably something to the food/soda/booze/cigarettes-selling being more important to the customers and the bottom line than the gas price, but still…………….
If you go up on Interstate 40 to Williams (Gateway To the Grand Canyon), the single gas stations at the exits on the far ends of town will probably be $4.49.9 a gallon while the “downtown” Circle K will be $3.19.
There’s a wide spread in gas prices around here. You can buy generic gasoline from Costco or pay a buck a gallon more for generic gasoline from a “name” brand. Oregon has no oil or refineries, so it all comes down from Washington.
isn’t that because there’s only like 3 gas suppliers and all the stations get their gas from one of those 3 suppliers? And the price for gas is set on the open market. it can be traded like any commodity
Bilan about 8 hours ago
“Get together?? We didn’t get together and fix the price! It’s just a coincidence.”
DanielRyanMulligan1 about 8 hours ago
FINALLY, a pearls before swine comic strip that reminds me of the “glory days” of comic strips from the days when newspapers existed in a physical form: a comic strip that is child-friendly by way of teaching the “reader” a new vocabulary word!!!! Yay!!!! Dan aka…
BasilBruce about 8 hours ago
It’s just their way of “servicing” us.
Seth down about 8 hours ago
When prices can’t have babies anymore
Yakety Sax about 8 hours ago
LOS ANGELES — A $50 million settlement over price gouging at the pump means some Californians are now eligible for a little money back.
In July, the California attorney general announced the settlement with three gasoline trading firms that allegedly worked together to manipulate gas prices nine years ago, violating California antitrust laws, according to the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta.
A lawsuit brought in 2020 by the Department of Justice alleged that the companies took advantage of a market disruption following an explosion in February 2015 at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance “to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit,” officials said. As a result, California consumers paid more for their gas.
The settlement does not include an admission of fault from the trading companies.
“Market manipulation and price gouging are illegal and unacceptable,” Bonta said, "particularly during times of crisis when people are most vulnerable.
As part of the settlement, Vitol, SK Energy Americas and South Korea’s SK Trading International have agreed to pay the total amount of $50 million into two settlement funds. Of the total, $37.5 million will be distributed to consumers as compensation for violations of the Cartwright Act.
If you filled up your gas tank between Feb. 20 and Nov. 10, 2015, in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and/or Imperial counties, you may be eligible for payment.
No information has been made available on the amount each claimant might receive.
To qualify for a settlement payment, you must submit a claim online or fill out a form and mail it by Jan. 8, 2025.
To fill out the form you’ll need to provide your name, address, and driver’s license. The form will also ask you which counties you purchased gas in during the 10-month period in 2015.
mnexplorer+ about 8 hours ago
Yeah, pretty much.
MeanBob Premium Member about 8 hours ago
In a word, Yes.
blunebottle about 7 hours ago
Rat gets it!
Uncle Kenny about 7 hours ago
Unless the gas station is on an airport complex or near its entrance. Then the price will be about 55 cents higher.
sbenton7684 about 7 hours ago
NOT like that where I live. There’s a price variance right now of a low of $2.89 a gallon to $3.29 a gallon.
orinoco womble about 7 hours ago
Price fixing and price gouging are twins.
Concretionist about 6 hours ago
When I was a kid, my dad ran one of three lumberyards in a smallish town (approximately double what the town really needed). My mom would call around and ask what they were charging for one item or another (gallon of paint, pound of bright 16d nails, dozen 2×4s 8 feet long…) so he could set a competitive price. Of course their spouses all called around for the same purpose. He explained that it was perfectly legal to do that: Anybody, including your competitor, can come into your store and check what you are selling for what price. But what would NOT be legal would be an agreement among the three managers to set prices higher than normal. I understood it easily at the age of 10 and still do.
Gas stations can do the same thing of course. Though there are very few who set their own prices, because their supplier / brand does that.
Ink blot Premium Member about 6 hours ago
No conspiratorial meetings are required for retail gas prices to be (almost) identical. First, and most obviously, they post their prices on signs for all to see. Second, if they’re busy, prices go up — and vice versa. Many consumers are price-conscious, so gouging is difficult anywhere there are competing sources.
Ichner about 6 hours ago
Rat is economically illiterate. Yes, price-fixing will lead to similar pricing. But no, similar pricing isn’t evidence of price-fixing, because normal competition will also tend to result in everyone offering the product for about the same price (since any business trying to charge more than surrounding businesses will soon see their sales drop as customers go "screw this, we’re not buying from the overpriced shop).
Competition leads to most businesses keeping their prices close to that of their competitors, at least for identical products (one gallon of gas is about the same as any other), it will differ more for products which aren’t exactly the same from place to place (like a premium hamburger vs a Big Mac).
cdward about 6 hours ago
As long as there is a “corporatocracy”, yes, they will always fix things to their advantage. Price gouging is the American way these days. On the other hand, most of us here have a place to live and food on the table, so that’s a step ahead of the majority of people.
shanen0 about 6 hours ago
Solution approach time. Not a comic suggestion, but maybe Pastis can come up with an angle?
What if there was a progressive profits tax linked to monopolistic market share? Call it pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation. Detect problems in several ways, but mainly (1) Lack of choices for customers, and (2) Complaints from wannabe competitors who want to offer more choices, but are blocked from entering the niche.
Guy from southern Indiana about 4 hours ago
I remember “gas wars” back in the 1960s, where competing gas stations, often within sight of each other, would keep lowering their prices. The lowest I remember is 22¢ a gallon. I wonder why you never see gas wars anymore… I’m guessing that it maybe that gas stations’ gas prices are fixed at the corporate level? Or that the gas station model is completely different now: gas stations now are almost always attached to a “convenience store” (where the real profit is generated). Gas stations back then were almost always attracted to a garage where work can be done on vehicles. The only “convenience” products sold were candy, cola, coffee and cigarettes.
Cactus-Pete about 4 hours ago
Not like that in my area either. Gas prices range nearly $1 from low to high. There are places where gas stations next to each other differ by 20 to 30 cents per gallon.
donlackie about 4 hours ago
The real villain is the oil futures market… they set the prices at no risk to themselves
Timothy Abraham Premium Member about 3 hours ago
These comments show our educational system has been an utter failure. Economic illiteracy abounds. Of course, Mr. Pastis has a conspiratiobal mind. He’s very funny, but much better when he sticks to the everyday foibles of humans (like most of these comments). Try Words and Numbers podcast.
James Wolfenstein about 3 hours ago
Market convergence… same product, same process, same distribution. You can expect the prices to be about the same. The truth is that every drop of oil and every oil well is different from the next. They differ in production costs but that makes the calculation difficult. So, everyone uses references like WTI, Brent, and OPEC, depending on the market, for its base material cost and adds along the production/distribution chain. The other factor is market offer. If everyone around you offers at a certain price, you don’t want to be the most expensive. With a bottom limit, based on estimated costs calculated from the same references, and a top limit, based on market offer, convergence is (could be) expected. Oil is a complex market with a limited number of players and a long chain of production/distribution. It’s not the same for meat or farm products or other markets where convergence could happen eventually but it’s too difficult to reach.
jbmlaw01 about 3 hours ago
Free competition brings prices to the lowest level possible. Regulation pushes prices to the highest level possible.
Huckleberry Hiroshima about 3 hours ago
Oil companies own the government. Mystery solved.
happyinvenice23 about 3 hours ago
Hey rat, go and check out how they handle That in N Korea, China, n Russia., you’ll be back hear a more thankful rat!!
Count Olaf Premium Member about 3 hours ago
One solution is becoming independent of Middle Eastern oil and even being able to sell our excess to friendly allied countries. Drill, baby, drill. Also employs thousands of Americans, fuels the economy and fights inflation. God Bless America!
Lenavid about 2 hours ago
Gas prices reflect 3 things: (1) government regulation/taxes (2) availability (3) competitionSince the government’s actions determine the first two, the oil companies must deal with the third. In other words, the oil companies deliver the lowest price possible through competition, not “price fixing”. The government is WAY more responsible for fixing the price of a gallon of gasoline with its energy policy.
Ellis97 about 2 hours ago
Gas prices are insane.
iggyman about 2 hours ago
Rat, they always blame the cartel!
timbob2313 Premium Member about 2 hours ago
25 years ago I lived in Northwestern MI. Starting Memorial Day weekend, all of the gas stations within 30 miles of where I lived raised their prices on Friday, then lowered them on Tuesday
MS72 about 2 hours ago
govt price fixing, taxed to keep them happy.
LawrenceS about 2 hours ago
Not sure to what degree you can blame the stations. Every state has a gas tax which each station much charge (and it varies from state to state so all stations in state X will be below state Y). And stations have to pay for the gas they sell (overhead). Unless you’re located by a gas station or some other “must fill up” spot you need to stay competitive with the stations around you so prices in areas will often stay close (see Adam Smith). Example of price-fixing above was by the gas distributors, not the stations who were sold the over-priced gas and had to pass the expense on.
Ignatz Premium Member about 2 hours ago
Unless they actually call each other on the phone and say “Let’s fix prices” it’s legal. And they aren’t that stupid.
They all know how it works, and know the others know how it works. So they don’t have to say anything to each other. And that makes it legal.
GumbyDammit223 about 2 hours ago
Pretty much….sigh.
franki_g about 2 hours ago
coupon-er tip for personal gas price reduction
If your supermarket has a gas station, use the “Jenny Song” phone number. Particularly good if you have an upscale neighborhood’s area code.
I had one for Safeway registered in my name for years, considered it a “community card”, and fully expected it to be used for gas, just like the nice people who used it when buying groceries EARNED the points. Some don’t want a loyalty card, or are visiting from an area without Safeway, whatever.Only I could convert gas rewards (into free items) so it was quite a nice deal even if I never used the gas rewards. I no longer have it but use other area codes and often get $1 off per gallon.
You might be able to see if there are rewards ahead of time, by asking the gas attendant or by going into the store and using that number to buy a small item. Tally shows on Safeway (Albertson’s affiliates) receipt.
LNER4472 Premium Member about 1 hour ago
In my town in north-central Arizona, a state that has prices that tend to run higher than the national average, we had prices per gallon around $3.35.9 for regular unleaded. Then a somewhat seedy little-noted gas station/convenience store rebranded as a Sinclair station—among the first I’ve seen anywhere in Arizona—and dropped its price to $3.09.9. The local gas stations have started dropping their prices to $3.29.9 or so. Yesterday I checked the Sinclair again, expecting the low price was just a short-term promotional fluke. Now $2.99.9. I haven’t paid that cheap since a cross-country drive a year ago, in Iowa or whatever. The larger Circle K across the street at $3.25.9 is still busy, so there’s probably something to the food/soda/booze/cigarettes-selling being more important to the customers and the bottom line than the gas price, but still…………….
If you go up on Interstate 40 to Williams (Gateway To the Grand Canyon), the single gas stations at the exits on the far ends of town will probably be $4.49.9 a gallon while the “downtown” Circle K will be $3.19.
chris_o42 about 1 hour ago
Yes Rat, you speak the truth.
david_42 about 1 hour ago
There’s a wide spread in gas prices around here. You can buy generic gasoline from Costco or pay a buck a gallon more for generic gasoline from a “name” brand. Oregon has no oil or refineries, so it all comes down from Washington.
Count Olaf Premium Member about 1 hour ago
It is amazing how the very same gas in the very same storage tanks goes up 20¢ a gallon overnight.
Dom999 about 1 hour ago
isn’t that because there’s only like 3 gas suppliers and all the stations get their gas from one of those 3 suppliers? And the price for gas is set on the open market. it can be traded like any commodity
karenjean123 Premium Member about 1 hour ago
You got it RAT!
carlosrivers 38 minutes ago
Spot on rat…
Chris 37 minutes ago
sadly, yes… :L
ladykat 24 minutes ago
Actually, Rat, you’re probably right.
royq27 23 minutes ago
Much of the price of gasoline is made up of govt taxes. So, in a way the prices are basically the same because of the preponderance of tax…
bittenbyknittin 19 minutes ago
I miss gas wars.