BLASPHEMY! Bill Clinton would never sign such a law! ---

You are completely correct! With the technology and internet boom that was taking place in the 90's other companies were beginning to struggle. Because the internet was new and its operations were not regulated by the Federal gov't, huge amounts of money were being moved around by investors. Companies like big oil and steel manufacturing were losing major investors to these booming new corporations. Something needed to be done to entice investors to spread out their investments.

Deregulation of housing, insurance, and banking industries (among others) led to a lack of economic stability towards the end of the Clinton administration. Bush came in to a bit of an economic mess on his hands, further deregulating almost all industries to compensate and develop an even playing field for investors. The economy began to pick up strongly over the summer of 2001, until September when the economy tanked due to the 9/11 attacks.

Further deregulation took place and the economy began to grow, until the unforeseen occurred with the government funded housing and loan companies began to fail and investor's with their "Safe investments" began losing faith in the banking industry and began investing their funds into commodities like oil and precious metals. Causing the prices of both to skyrocket. Then in late 2008 and early 2009 when Pres. Obama was taking office, investors (generally conservative businessmen) yanked their money from the stock market entirely, drove costs down to a minimum. Gasoline became $1.299 a gallon. Then regulation of industries started up and prolonged the "recession" rather than letting these companies fail and rebuild the industry with economic Darwinism and evolve to more financially stable industries. High regulations on the banking and financial industries caused the oil bubble to grow again. Due to huge debate and slower governmental action taking place in congress these days, the economy is actually getting a chance to try and grow without interference.

this part of the post can belong in r/atheism, but I don't understand why many people are pro-evolution but anti-capitalist. Capitalism is the epitome of evolution, survival of the fittest, and as the weaker/inefficient companies demise, the more efficient and more cost effective and cost savings companies will emerge. As big and inefficient companies fail, little companies would get the chance to succeed. Due to government regulation and control, propping up these companies deemed too big to fail will ultimately slow societal progress.

tl;dr: Redditor goes on historical rant on the cause of gas prices, leaves out significant details, and will most likely be downvoted to hell.