Fuel prices fall below $4.00 per gallon -- look out!

Don't get complacent. Don't get too comfortable. But gas prices have fallen again, down by over 42 cents overall since their high in mid-July, according to CNNMoney.com. That's good news, right?

Depends on how you look at it. In the short term, a 42 cent drop in fuel prices is a good thing, sure. But we're still 99 cents higher than we were a year ago. A year ago, we were just settling in to the idea of $3.00 per gallon of gas. Now, we're breathing a sigh of relief at prices that have settled in at $4.00 per gallon. Do you notice a pattern emerging here? Prices go up very quickly, we all panic, then prices settle back down again -- but at a substantially higher mark than before the panic. Since we can't stay in a panic all the time, we settle in with the prices, and anything under $4.00 per gallon looks like a bargain.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I have no facts other than my empirical observations to support my paranoia, but I see a trend.

And it scares the daylights out of me.

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