Another shock

The New York Times reports that high gas prices are causing people to buy smaller cars.

Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede. In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.

Colour me amazed. But it's not too late to interrupt this alarming trend. Let's try a gas-tax holiday. (One question about that proposal, by the way, I wish somebody would put to Hillary Clinton and John McCain: if it's such a good idea, why do it just for the summer?)

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2008/05/another-shock/8537/