New jump in gas prices

You're looking at roughly 15 cents a gallon, according to the government's weekly survey. That puts the average gallon of regular in the L.A. area at $2.891, though I've seen $3-plus prices in several locations. Actually, prices are a bit higher in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest, the result of refinery problems. From the NYT:

"This hits everyone," said Robert J. Shiller, an economist at Yale. "It has the potential to affect your confidence." He said that the recent rise in gasoline prices could effectively offset the new $400 to $800 payroll tax cut most employees are receiving this year as part of the Obama administration's effort to stimulate the economy. Consumers last summer were pulling $1.5 billion a day from their wallets to fuel their vehicles. By January, as oil prices collapsed, they were spending only $600 million a day. But now they are back to daily spending of around $1 billion, Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said.