Today’s average price of gas is the lowest it’s been since August of 2005. This should be very encouraging news considering that stock market made it’s second largest gain in history yesterday. New home sales in September were up 3% from August. Banks are lending credit again. It would seem our economy is on the rise. But don’t let some cheap gas get your hopes up.

As you can see by looking at this gas prices chart, the price of gasoline has been pretty volatile. We’ve seen drops like this before, only to have them followed by massive price hikes. Here’s the good news though. Gas prices have historically been good signs of a healthy or unhealthy economy. Look at the last price hike in the 1980’s. Increasing gas prices seem to correlate to an economic recession. Notice how gas prices dropped in the 1980’s and stayed constant in the 1990’s. That was a decade of great economic prosperity. Then a recession hits in 2001. What were gas prices doing? Increasing. For the past 8 years they have been steadily increasing, and our economy has been steadily inching towards recession.

So while plummeting gas prices can be a sure sign of a recovering economy, don’t get your hopes up just yet. Gas prices have gone down for 42 straight days now. Once that happens for 90 days, or three months, then I think it would be safe to say our economy is on the upswing. I hope this trend continues in gas prices, because I would like to see a strong economy like anyone else.

But whatever you do, don’t feel free to drive around wildly, waste gas and think it’s ok. Low prices now don’t mean they will stay low or that we are out of this economic crisis. Keep following those money saving driving tips and work to conserve gasoline. And let’s keep our fingers crossed that gas prices continue to drop and that we see ourselves climb out of this recession by year’s end.