The Real Price of Oil - Forbes.com Interactive Chart

There is, no doubt, a lot of talk about oil prices these days. Maybe more surprisingly, however, is the sometimes devil's advocate-like position that some take when discussing today's real price of oil relative to that of a decade or more ago. Similarly, in comparing the oil prices faced by American today with those faced by citizens of most European countries, some critics argue that we shouldn't by arguing at all. Well, for those of you still reading, you should check-out this link to a chart prepared by Forbes.com

The fight over the difference between nominal and real prices will continue to undercut some arguments when it comes to the CPI, but given the chart prepared by Forbes, it's difficult to see anything but a staggering rise in the real (i.e true) cost we face at the pump. In the last ten years alone we have seen almost a 10-fold increase in the price of oil and a similar rise in the prices of gasoline. That's a ten-times increase; put differently, 1,000 percent. 'nough said.