I think part of the high oil prices have to do with Greenspan and his bubbles.  He is really pumping alot of money into the system these days.  He always needs a bubble for all the excess cash to go.  First tech, then college costs, med care, housing, now energy.
And of course these huge decline rates that very few forcasted also create the high prices.
This will be Greenspan's last bubble and America will take a while to recover from this one.
And of course one will notice that none of these things are calculated in the CPI index. .9% this month..Woohoo!
Cookin the books baby!
Funny  that you should mention this, but i just read from a financial website, (technicalindicatorindex.com)and i will quote from the website: dated 23Nov05 (since it's in PDF form and i can't copy, thus i must retype):

  Very quietly, the DJIA is rising about 50 points a day. A master planner reward to the outgoing Fed chair for for playing ball by tripling the supply of money in his 18 year term..........in flagrant defiance of his congressional charge to ensure a stable currency. He increased the money supply by twice the total that money supply grew to over the previous 74 years"