Sign of a "Double-Dip" Recession?

I wondered what was going on. As I drove past a gas station along upper Central Avenue near Colonie Center this evening, there seemed to be a mass of motorists swarmed around the gas pumps. But oddly enough, gas was the highest I'd seen it in more than a year... $3.19 a gallon!

But as I drove on, and past other gas stations, I noticed that they too, were "swarmed" although fuel was priced starting at $3.19! What the heck?!?

Regular readers of this humble weblog know that I've been predicting a double-dip recession, and that I have been anticipating that "second dip." Such a dip, I've theorized, will be prefaced by a spike in the price of gasoline. Keep in mind that $3.25 a gallon is the "price panic point" at which consumers will tighten their pursestrings and trounce any real or imagined "recovery." At the moment, this chilling price hike from $3.09 this morning seems to be indicating something --- but what? Am I right? Is this that "it" moment?

Let me go back in time to this morning, around 0755 I was in the car listening to a business report on talk1300 radio. The report sounded quite optimistic. Maybe too optimistic, considering the large amount of Americans whose unemployment checks are about to run out.

If indeed the second dip of a "double-dip" is upon us, be it known that such dip began in the afternoon/evening of Friday, December 3, 2010, a day that could ultimately be known as the real "Black Friday." (Hope I'm wrong!)