Sorting out the gas price conspiracy

The truth is that there is no conspiracy against Americans when it comes to gas prices. No one is purposely making you pay more, and our government can't really help. Anything our government would try to do would probably backfire royally, so they're better off staying out of the gas problem.

The below video shows us exactly what goes into the cost of a gallon of gas. And it's no surprise that the price is most dependent on the price of crude oil. He who holds the crude oil can set the price, and short of drilling our own oil reserves (which the environmentalists won't let us do), we have no control over the price of a barrel of oil. And yes, oil speculators have made that situation a little worse, but they're part of the market and that's how the market works.

Don't forget that one of the biggest hands in your pocket when it comes to gas prices is our government. The federal and state governments take huge amounts of money from you for every gallon of gas, and they do nothing to earn that money!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.