The gloom among Americans about gasoline prices seems to have subsided somewhat as the fall in the price of oil has had its ripple effect at the pumps. A Gallup poll conducted Aug. 7-10 found that in contrast to last month - when nearly 9 out of 10 Americans predicted prices would be higher by year's end than now - only 40 percent expect them to increase a little or a lot. Thirty-seven percent expect some decrease and 21 percent believe they will stay the same. Gallup editor Frank Newport said, "It's uncommon to see the type of change evident in responses to this type of question in as little as one month." Of course, while no one expects gasoline prices to return to the levels they were before the huge run-up in the cost of oil over the last year, that pessimism Gallup found last month was hardly surprising given how many media stories there were about the era of cheap gasoline being over. Just type into a Google search box: era cheap gasoline over.

Check out a recent piece in Foreign Policy: Seven Questions. A Return to Cheap Oil?