As the economic recovery takes hold, it makes sense to suppose that market equilibria will go back to where they were before the crisis hit in late Summer of 2008.

In other words; the return of high gas prices. Remember, $4.00 a gallon gasoline had dominated the headlines until mid-September of ’08.

In many ways, this is actually a worse problem then the huge recession. High gas prices lead to “stagflation”, which causes both unemployment and inflation to rise. Normally, there is thought to be a trade-off between the two.