What's the saying - What comes around, goes around

I don't feel sorry for the oil companies one bit and this story appeared on the internet yesterday. If indeed, gas falls below $1.00 I will have no sympathy for the Big Oil Companies. They bled us dry for the last two years. Funny thing is, people learned that they didn't need to run to the grocery every day, they planned; they didn't have to go out to be entertained, they could entertain themselves at home; they could take mass-transit to work instead of drive and save even more money on parking; they traded in large gas guzzlers for smaller, more efficient cars or, better yet, they went hybrid. I am elated that gas is finally falling and I am laughing all the way to the bank! Poor big oil companies, guess you'll have to find some other sap to make your billion dollar profits!

Collapsing oil prices bring back the unthinkable: Could gas fall below a $1 a gallon?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.

The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.

A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.

Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.
Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.

Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround. "That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery," Sundstrom said. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.
AP Energy Writers Ernest Scheyder in New York and Chris Kahn in Phoenix contributed to this story along with Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore.