Looking for oil in all the wrong places

The continued climb of oil and gas prices is of great concern to many. No longer does gas go up in fractions of a cent, it rises in nickels and dimes overnight and like a flu the adjacent gas stations raise their prices in lock step with the competition (cough, cough). 

My namesake and famous economist, James Hamilton of econbrowser, has identified rising gas prices as the probable causes of a number of recessions – he calls the situation an Oil Shock, so I hope that the current economic mess doesn’t get messier as we quickly approach $1.40 a litre.

I think that resourceful people of Toronto have even started to take matters into their own hands by drilling for oil throughout the city. At first I thought these drill rigs were putting in caissons to support new condos, but a careful review and a big imagination later, I think they are seeking sweet crude which keeps the world running. Now I start to see oil rigs everywhere. I do believe that the art installation at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre is a cover-up for an oil derrick, right under our own noses. But they probably need the oil to pay for the hockey players high wages, probably paid in US dollars or even by the barrel.