The U.S. government needs to investigate high gasoline prices, Cramer said Tuesday.
"I paid $3.98 this weekend for premium unleaded and I swear that’s the same price I paid when oil traded at $100, even though oil’s plummeted to $84 on the back of the newfound weakness in the economy. I want to know why," Cramer protested. "Why is it that I’m still paying top dollar even as our benchmark, West Texas Intermediate , has nose-dived?"
There is a lot of chatter that suggests the WTI benchmark is now irrelevant, Cramer said. Some argue gas is now priced off Brent crude , which is roughly $25 a barrel more than WTI--a record disparity between the two postings.
"We are told to ignore that Texas pricing because the refiners use the Brent price," Cramer said. "It is true that the price to buy oil in Louisiana is roughly similar to Brent, so the West Texas market may be less relevant than we believe, but still this $27 disparity between Texas and, let's say, Louisiana is just too great to not sense something's wrong here."
Cramer wants to know why U.S. refiners use the European benchmark when half of the oil is produced in the USA. He also wants to know why Brent is so high despite all of the talk about the Europe's economic slowdown.
From banks to natural gas companies, it seems the U.S. government is already doing a lot of investigating. Cramer thinks high gas prices should be a top their list, though.
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