It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve

you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.

Today's show we're going to talk about the ugliness of gas prices.

Everywhere I go, that's what people want to talk about is how much gasoline is and

there are actually people that are saying, you know that summer trip we're going to take,

we're not taking now because of gas prices.

And something else that's changing travel plans, sky high air fares.

We're going to talk about that as well.

So gas prices are a worldwide problem.

And there's something I've been reading about people saying, well, what's this whole thing

about our energy independence?

I mean, we're so energy independent.

Why are our prices going up just like everybody else's?

And so this is where economics is truly the dismal science because oil knows no borders.

What our production has done of oil and natural gas making us so the world's largest energy

producer is it's kept us from being at the mercy of countries that hate us.

And the value of that is priceless.

And so we have American companies that are benefiting mightily along with foreign oil producers

and natural gas producers.

So it is a mixed bag for the US economy when you look at the profits of the major American

oil companies.

And then companies that we usually don't pay attention to what are known as the refiners,

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