I have lost my patience with all the people rising up to claim the "big bad oil companies" were price goring after the hurricanes which hit the south. I will explain a rather simple but profound concept called supply and demand. To simply the example, I will explain this concept using 5 farmers and 5 grain millers. The 5 farmers all grow the same grain using by the grain millers; however, each farmer employs different number of people, owns a different size plot of land, and has a different size crop result in different prices for their grain. The 5 grain millers go to market to buy the grain necessary to grind in order to sell to the bread bakers as flour. They will naturally try to buy grain at the lowest price possibly but that farmer only has a limited supply. The grain millers will then bid up the price (offer a higher price to the farmers) in order to reach a price at which enough grain is sold to satisfy the grain millers. As the supply of grain goes up, the price will naturally be lower as fewer grain millers have to bid up the price to gain the necessary amount of grain. The reverse occurs if the supply of grain drops. The farmers unable to sell their grain at the market price because their costs are too high will go out of business. This is what occurred with the oil companies and nothing more. Why is the price returning to lower then hurricane levels if they could simply raise the price of oil without consequence? A profit was gain by those companies who didn’t have their supply affect by the hurricane. However, America would have faced a lack of oil without the higher prices to entice those companies to sell their extra oil to us. To those whining about higher prices, shut up and open an economic textbook.