JEREMY HOBSON: Here’s a headline that’s nice to hear: gas prices begin to drop. The national average is down 11 cents in the last week at $3.84 for a gallon of regular unleaded. And gas prices are the subject of today’s Globalist quiz.
Our quizmaster is editor-in-chief Stephan Richter. Good morning.
STEPHAN RICHTER: Good morning Jeremy — ready for today’s quiz?
HOBSON: I’m ready.
RICHTER: So which of the following countries has the highest gasoline prices? Is it A) The United States, B) Saudi Arabia, C) Iran or D) China?
HOBSON: I’m going to go with Iran?
BUZZER
RICHTER: Ah, I didn’t ask about the lowest prices.
HOBSON: I was way off.
RICHTER: Yeah, 2.3 cents a liter or 9 cents a gallon. But at least the Iranians are trying to up and up the prices because they can’t afford subsidizing any more. They’re running out of money apparently to spill out those goodies.
HOBSON: I thought maybe with a closed economy that they would have some kind of a price hike. But maybe not. OK, fine. How about the United States?
BUZZER
RICHTER: United States, actually is not the top performer among these. In fact among all the developed countries, it ranks at the bottom because it has the lowest taxes. It is the 23rd lowest prices — gasoline prices — out of 170 nations around the world. And if I read you other countries that have lower prices in that same area as the United States — Angola, Bolivia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ecuador — the U.S. is in an astonishing neighborhood.
HOBSON: Well, I guess I’ll go with China then.
DING DING DING DING
RICHTER: China indeed, according to the Germany research institute GIZ, is the most expensive by comparison. Much more expensive than the United States — $4.20 a gallon as of last November. Here is one way where the Chinese lead the way in terms of becoming cleaner than we are because if in a country as poor relatively as China is, gas prices are that high, it kind of puts a damper on driving that much, even though they still do a lot of it.
HOBSON: Stephan Richter, editor-in-chief of TheGlobalist.com. And they’ve got new features at The Globalist everyday. Thanks so much for joining us.
RICHTER: Great to be with you.