At an incredible $9.98 per gallon, Turkey has the most expensive gasoline in the world - almost triple that of the US - closely followed by Norway at $9.97. In fact, as Bloomberg notes [4], the US can celebrate its good fortune at being only the 51st most expensive country in the world for gasoline.
[5]
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So why is it then that so much is made of a rising gas price in the US [6]? Why do we fear $3.80 [7] when Turkey shows us things could be a lot worse? The simple answer lies in the chart below. The US spends the 7th most in the world on gasoline as a percentage of income and is by far the largest among developed economies as a percentage of income.
[8]
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At 3.06% of income, and being that the US is a consumption-based, low-quality-job [9], unaffordable-housing-means-driving-to-work nation, the possibility of $4 gas [6] in the not-too-distant future (as Egyptian instability leaks into WTI prices) has a far greater impact on the US than any other of the world's large economies. But then again, we are sure it is all transitory.
Source: Bloomberg