http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=857775

I’m actually proud to admit that I don’t claim expertise in anything. That lack of intimate knowledge protect me, I suppose, from those who think I should understand the intricacies of every subject that crosses my mind.

The latest perplexing subject deals with gasoline prices. They spiked dramatically in the past few days, up about 16 cents per gallon across Amarillo. Remember when they drip-dripped their way back down to around $2.92 per gallon at some locations? As my friend Jon Mark Beilue noted in a recent newspaper essay, it almost made him want to “wash my car with gasoline.”

I’m always bumfuzzled by the pace of these price increases compared with the pace of their decreases. What goes up does so rapidly; but what goes down does so at a snail’s pace.

The cynic in me – and it’s just a tiny fraction of my DNA – suggests it’s greed. Retailers want to hold on to those few extra cents for as long as they can before giving us poor shmucks a break when we fill our vehicles with fuel.

I’m acquainted with some folks in the gasoline retail business in town. I’ll just have to ask them straight up: Why don’t the prices seemingly ever decline at the speed with which they increase?

My hunch is that I’ll get some gobbledy-gook response that only will confuse me even more.

Maybe someone out there can explain it to me.