By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist
Friday, February 17, 2012
Four years ago, Tampa Bay gas prices hovered in the mid $3.60s and peaked at a modern record of $4.009 on July 16, 2008, amid great anxiety over a troubled U.S. economy.
Today, Tampa Bay prices again hover near the mid $3.60s while most analysts forecast gas will top $4 this summer. A few warn of $5 or more at the pump in higher-priced parts of the country.
Nobody's happy with rising gas prices. But this time the masses are not hitting the panic button as they did in 2008. What's different now is the general direction of the economy.
When gas peaked in July 2008, Wall Street was already starting to tank. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy early that fall while the Dow fell off a cliff, dropping from almost 13,000 in the ...