Thank Goodness For Villainous Oil

People in other businesses should send oil executives a nice holiday card. After the post-Katrina rise in gas prices, Americans devoted so much antipathy to Big Oil that they’ve become relatively indulgent toward other industries. In a recent Harris Poll (excerpted in the chart below), oil took the lead from healthcare as the sector Americans most want to see regulated more strictly. Sentiment for tighter regulation of drug companies has actually been ebbing since early 2003, when 57 percent of respondents wanted the government to lean more heavily on them.