Letters to the Editor
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George Frost... economist?
I would very much hope that the next time Salon publishes an article weighing in on the merits of a complex economic issue, the editors opt for commentary by at least one economist. Last I checked, Mr. Frost is a very able lawyer, as you can tell from his cultivated ability to argue--using post-hoc fallacy, magical thinking, and straw men--all of the points except the chief one: is a gas tax holiday a legitimate and useful policy tool?
He fails to mention that there is no elasticity now in the market place, that the current price of gasoline at the pump does NOT reflect the high cost of oil--the refiners and retailers are taking the hit on the margin, not passing along their increased costs for crude--and the fact that making it illegal for the oil companies to increase prices in the absence of a gas tax would not have any bearing on the perfectly legal ability of retailers to increase prices at the pump.