Shades of Gordon Gekko

According to Michael Douglas' famous character Gordon Gekko, "Greed is good". When post-Katrina gas prices skyrocketed, many commentators with little or no sense of economics attributed it to greed on the part of the oil companies.

Actually, they were right. However, this same greed that caused prices to rise also caused them to fall. Bill Cholenski at Catallarchy explains this about as well as anyone could:

...Greed has actually caused people to reduce prices. It sounds absurd, but think about it. With such “high” prices, anyone who sees fit to lower prices will gain market share. The world will beat a path to their door. Greedy oil companies are lowering prices, trying to steal customers away from each other - and it’s working.

Click here for the whole thing. Well done.