For a business reporter, you would think CNN’s Ali Velshi would have a grasp of market trends – especially with oil and gasoline prices.
However, on “American Morning,” a show that claims to have the “most news in the morning every weekday,” Velshi plead ignorance when it came to the relationship between oil prices and pump prices.
“A lot of folks are saying, ‘Why have my gas prices come down 17 or 18 cents in the last couple of weeks when oil prices are going up?’” said Velshi on the August 1 “American Morning.”
“Well, I hope we’ve all figured out there’s no way, there’s no mathematician in the world who can figure out the relationship between gas and oil prices, but you can expect with oil up at 78 bucks a barrel, gas prices will soon follow and that takes things—that takes money out of the pockets of consumers who keep this economy going,” he continued.
But, some experts would disagree with Velshi’s prognostication – at least in the short term. The July 31 USA Today reported gasoline prices were expected to go even lower as more refineries come back online, despite the rise in oil prices.
USA Today’s Barbara Hagenbaugh wrote, “Now, with those same refineries coming back into full swing, supplies are anticipated to be healthy, leading to lower prices at the pump.”
But Velshi’s statement that the economics of oil and gasoline prices are difficult to “figure out” doesn’t line up with his previous reports. In the past, Velshi recognized that refineries are a variable in the gasoline price equation. “We got to use less gasoline or build more refineries,” he said on the April 11 “American Morning.”
He also questioned Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich about refineries and regulations putting pressure on gasoline prices during the April 21 “In the Money.”
