Oil keeps falling

At last check it was trading at $123.45 a barrel, down a couple of bucks for the day and about $24 from its high point several weeks back (here's the CNBC story). That's a huge drop, especially over such a short period, and if it holds up the price of gasoline is sure to fall further. In fact, the AAA expects gas to be another 25 cents-a-gallon cheaper by Labor Day. That would bring us near $4 (the last time average L.A. gas prices were under $4 was May 19; the last time they were under $3 was October 2007). I'm also running into more forecasts of under-$100-a-barrel crude by early next year. Now as we all know, many of these projections haven't been exactly on the money – remember $200-a-barrel oil predictions? – so let's not get ahead of ourselves. But the price of energy remains the economy's most important pivot point, so those oil numbers are worth keeping an eye on.