HOW HE SEES IT Is that a tiger in your tank?

By STAN TINER
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Please pay very close attention to what I am about to say, for it may be the single most valuable tip ever given to consumers: Quit worrying about the possibility that terrorists may disrupt oil supplies.
That anxiety is currently costing world consumers hundreds of billions in dollars, yen, euros, pesos and the like. Business analysts estimate this pervasive fear has driven up oil prices by as much as $10 to $15 per barrel, or about 36 cents per gallon of gasoline.
Your anxiety, the so-called fear premium, is actually going directly to the bottom line of oil sheiks, big oil companies and futures traders who quite frankly don't need the money.
Think about how misplaced, how irrational the cost of these fears. There is no shortage of the $2-plus-per-gallon gasoline that now fills your tank. You did not have to wait in line to get the gas. There is plenty of the fuel available everywhere.
Six or seven bucks
So your misplaced fears just cost you about six or seven bucks -- money you could have used for something else. At its current rate the fear factor will cost every two-car family about $700 to $800 annually in additional prices at the pump. When you take into account the other costs affiliated with higher gas prices that will be added to all kinds of goods and services and passed along to you, the impact on your pocketbook could be easily twice that much this year.
Come to think of it, who determined we were afraid and how much value to place on that fear? Conduct your own poll and see how many scaredy-cats you can find at your local store, barbershop or pool hall. Not many I'll bet.
What you will discover, however, is a growing fear that they may not be able to pay their bills if the rise in prices continues.
Americans recognize, of course, that a threat to oil supplies does exist, and they know that an interruption in the supply of oil from the Middle East would have an impact on the price of gasoline. If and when. But not now.
So the average man and woman has concluded that, once more, they've been had. Somewhere behind the smoke and mirrors and all of the sweet words there are those mysterious few who have the ability to profit off of any opportunity.
Our misfortune -- the threat of terror -- has been manipulated into their good fortune.
You may be quick to say that is classical, populist-conspiracist malarkey. But I say when the supply of a commodity meets the demand, and the price is jacked you can be sure there's a fleecing afoot.
So if you want to be afraid of something let it be this: Be fearful of those who try to tell us how much our fears are worth. Especially those who pocket the cash.
Can you say baaaah, baaaah?
XTiner is executive editor of The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.