Leave it to OPEC talk master Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi to put it all in perspective:
"Good demand, reliable supply, beautiful prices -- we are very happy," (http://www.cnbc.com/id/35907584)
You see after the markets visited $147 a barrel oil during the summer of 08, anything less is a price for which, according to OPEC, we should be thankful. And just in case we have lost sight of things, we should also be thankful to OPEC for its benevolent restraint in not letting prices go higher (for now anyway).
Well, dear reader, if the OPEC cartel and its lead choir master, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi find prices "beautiful" you can bet your last drop of gasoline that we are being held up to a royal fandango (I'd rather use another word but it would be inappropriate here).
Oil at $80 a barrel is an outrage and a reflection of this country's, as the world's largest consumer of oil, lack of leadership on matters oil pricing (please see: "The Billion Dollar Day Extortion: A Somnolent Administration and Dysfunctional Congress' Gift to the American People" 02.22.10; "President Obama Bests Bush and Cheney in Coddling Oil Markets" 03.05.10), either by the administration, its Department of Energy, a dormant Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a Department of State that has not focused on international oil speculation/manipulation in spite of expressions of exasperation on this issue by the heads of state of such as Gordon Brown Prime Minister of Great Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
It is long past due that that our government calls in the Saudi ambassador to Washington and advises him that if oil at $80/barrel "pleases" his government, that it meets with profound displeasure with us and that it will have policy repercussions.