Story 4: It's 2011, and the economy is on the way up, but still coming out of the 2008-2009 recession. However, one catch to that is, with the resulting shift in the demand curve for oil, the price of oil has reached record highs again. On average, people are paying almost four times what they paid for a gallon of gas only three years ago. This has had an enormous impact across the global economy because oil is used in the production and transportation of millions of different consumer goods. Especially hard hit have been American car companies, as they have built much of their business around large, gas-guzzling SUVs instead of small hybrids