Speaker 1: We're going to be taking a deep look at 2024 today.
We're going to look at all sorts of new approval polls for both the Democratic and Republican
side.
But before we do that, I have to start with a story that many of you I know will say,
David, this this can't be this has to be a low.
Even Fox News, even the right wing wouldn't do this, would they?
And yes, they did.
Fox News hosts are now worried that the rapidly declining gas prices that we're seeing might
be bad for local mom and pop gas stations.
I know guys.
I know after months and months and months of saying the high gas prices are the end
of the of the country.
They are Joe Biden's fault.
It is inflation.
It's ruining everything.
The high gas prices are so terrible now that gas prices have been declining for about a
month.
And of course, they don't want to give Joe Biden any credit for it, which, by the way,
I don't think he deserves.
But they were blaming Biden on the way up.
Now they're silent.
Now they're saying, you know, these lower gas prices, they might be bad for gas stations.
Listen to this.
It is beyond parody.
Speaker 2: I want him to run again and the rest probably don't.
That is stunning, by the way, on gas prices.
I've had a curious I was at a lacrosse tournament up in Wilmington, Delaware, over the weekend
in Delaware and northern Maryland.
Regular gas is about anywhere from 455 to 480 a gallon.
So the price is beginning to creep back down.
Speaker 3: It is.
It is.
And the point was made over the weekend, I believe, is The Wall Street Journal.
Gas prices are actually coming back down historically faster with the price of oil than usual.
And it just goes to show you what an incredible risk reward calculation has to happen on the
part of those small independently owned, most of them mom and pop gas stations.
It's a struggle for all of them.
Speaker 2: They are still a long way from 355 a gallon, but maybe some move in that
direction.
Hey, they can't find peace and privacy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, guys, listen, I mean, we really have to now think about these mom
and pop gas stations.
All of a sudden, prices are coming down.
This could really be a bad thing for them.
So we'll ask the question of whether that's even true.
Just as a reminder, gas prices indeed coming down.
They peaked right around really about a month ago, right in mid-June, and have been in a
relatively steep decline.
I mean, it is true that normally, as I've as I told you before, there's this phenomenon
where you see oil prices go up and then gas prices go up in parallel.
But then when oil comes back down, the gas prices only trickle down at a lower rate.
And we've seen this with airfare.
We've seen this in a lot of different areas that are dependent on the oil price.
But we're actually seeing a relatively rapid decline of gas prices now down to about 464,
from a high of about 503.
So it is true that gas prices are coming down.
Now, the question is, is it bad for the mom and pops?
Is it bad for gas stations when gas prices are lower, which would imply that it's good
for gas stations when prices are higher?
Now, this is not actually even true.
And so with all of these discussions, first, you know, we get the claim from Fox.
First, we want to verify the facts, our gas prices even coming down.
And yes, they are coming down.
And I reported that to you.
The next question is, do the local gas stations suffer when prices come down?
It doesn't really work that way.
When when oil prices go up, what you actually sometimes see is gas stations which make very
little off of gas, try to outcompete competitors by really eating some of the price increase.
So you will see the gas stations know, okay, oil prices are up.
The cost we are now paying for gas is up.
So we have to raise our retail price.
I'm going to try to raise the price less than my competitor down the street because I make
more money from the slushies and the peanut magnums and the $10 sunglasses or whatever
else.
So, in fact, sometimes higher gas prices, higher gas prices are quite good for the oil
companies, but they are not necessarily so good for the local gas stations.
And during higher prices after expenses, gas stations will often make only $0.05 a gallon,
sometimes even less.
And that compares to what is often like a 15 to 20 cent per gallon profit for gas stations
during more stable gas prices.
So multiple aspects of this, the big one is the hypocrisy.
They've been pulling their hair out with.
The sky is falling type stuff for a year now about high gas prices, which they say are
Joe Biden's fault.
We get a month of declines in gas prices now.
They say, oh, no, lower gas prices aren't so good for the mom and pop gas stations.
What about for all of the commuters that you've been talking about for a year?
That's the main.
Story.
The maybe just as interesting one is that high gas prices are not particularly good
for the mom and pop gas stations for the reasons that I just said.
So it's it's unbelievable that Fox I mean, they should be embarrassed that now they're
saying gas prices might be going down too quickly, they might get too low.
It's an embarrassment.
But of course, their followers absolutely love it.
They never get any contradictory information from other networks.
Obviously, they should be saying, wait, this is a contradictory message from Fox.
They've been telling me the higher.
But gas prices are bad all this time.
Now they're saying the lower gas prices could be bad.
What is bad?
What is good?
They're not they're not going to go through that process and they will accept what is
spoon fed to them.
But absurd hypocrisy from Fox News.