Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, you're absolutely right, oil prices have been rising. They actually fell below $40 a barrel. They're now over $60 a barrel. And you're also right, we're beginning to see this impact in prices at the pump. Gas prices in recent weeks in some areas have gone up over 20 cents a gallon. Now, we should put this in perspective. Of course, oil prices are still well below their peak a year ago of $145 a barrel. And of course, we're nowhere near $4 a gallon gasoline, but you wouldn't expect oil and gas prices to be rising given that we have a lot of inventory. And we certainly still have a very weak economy. So, what's the answer? Well, I think the answer is that we're in an international oil market, and there are places in the world where the buying of oil is actually on the rise. And in particular, we can point to that country that we've mentioned a lot in recent years, China. China has been dramatically increasing its oil imports, actually to near record levels, and when that happens, that means the worldwide demand for oil - and this is a world market - is going up. And that carries with it the price of oil and certainly the price of gas. Now actually what's happening with oil prices is in line with other kinds of what we call commodity prices, basic prices like the price of lumber and copper and steel and iron ore. Those have all been rising on trend, and some economists actually see a silver lining here. That is to say that these prices typically rise before the economy recovers."