Gas prices spike and the first instinct is to blame “greedy oil companies,” but that explanation falls apart once you follow the math of a global commodities market. We sit down with former Congressman Bob McEwen to untangle a listener’s question: if America has so much oil, why do Americans still feel the pain at the pump? The answer runs straight through supply and demand, worldwide buyers, disruptions in major producers, and the reality that prices are signals, not slogans.

From there, we take on the loaded term “price gouging” with a simple example that hits home: what happens to a business when replacement costs jump overnight? That retail logic applies to oil too, and it exposes why a snapshot of “profit” can be misleading when tomorrow’s inventory costs more than yesterday’s. We also talk about government price caps, why socialist-style price controls create shortages and empty shelves, and how political promises to “set the price” usually end by breaking the incentives needed to produce, refine, and deliver energy.

We wrap by digging into futures markets, the risk entrepreneurs take to stabilize pricing, and the constitutional idea of limited government as a servant of the people, not a manager of every decision. Finally, we connect economic freedom to a deeper foundation: liberty works best when a society has shared moral restraints, because without them the pressure for more government control only grows. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review, then tell us what you think: where should the line be between smart regulation and harmful micromanagement?

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