It's Oct. 4, 2011, and gasoline should be $2.49 a gallon today. Why isn't it?

By Pat Richards

Right now a barrel of crude oil is trading at about $77 bucks. The last time crude was this low was back at the end of 2009 — and the price at the pump at that time was around $2.49 a gallon.

So, is gas $2.49 a gallon today, even though crude now costs what it did back then? No.

Today gas is at least $1 buck a gallon higher.

If the world had any governance with any guts, someone, somewhere, would be charging the oil companies with a criminal indictment for price gouging during a 'global financial emergency'.

But, of course, Big Oil owns every government everywhere.