Why are economists talking about gas prices dropping like it's a bad thing?

I would nevermind some of those other answers..

Gas prices are priced on future sales so now investments wouldn't affect them this dramatically.

Gas prices are going down in reflection to the US economy because the world economy is based on two major components, US consumption and Asia's Production. The US downturn economy has made future sales to Asia not plausible. So major countries like China and India don't need/afford as much oil as they did before because they're losing their biggest customer, the USA.

So future demand of oil is down, which causes low gas prices, insuring US's bad economy to worsen.

Gas prices are also artificially low in this country. The price of gas will shoot up again to be sure, as a result of supply and demand. The price per barrel has dropped and this is being attributed to decreased consumption by consumers. Prices that reflect long-term supply and demand can motivate investment in technologies that can produce new industries and sources of employment. Low gas prices reinforce a car culture that is over the long term not economically sustainable.

A number of reasons.

The gas & oil price reflect a level of pessimism in the markets about future economic conditions.

However, one oft-stated goal of our society is to get off of petroleum based energy, that is not going to happen right now with the prices the way they are. The signal being broadcast by the markets is the petroleum based energy system we have is acceptable and meets our energy needs do not bother with finding more or different energy. Plus it discourages exploration for better ways to extract petroleum and for new sources of petroleum.

The price of oil now reflects how the economy is doing. Retail sales also reflect that too.

Gas prices are lower because investors aren't buying it to resell it at a higher price. In other words, investors think that things will get worse, so, they don't buy oil. They also don't buy stocks and other investments, which hurts the economy.

simple supply and demand dude. if more people buy gas, then prices will go up. now it going down, that means people are not buying gas. which means they prob wont be buying a lot of other things. it indicates people are cutting back, therefore it signals a derpession.

Because many Americans work at oil companies and they are not doing as well far as salaries...and some are getting laid off.

Also...the people who actually OWN stock in oil companies are losing money...so if you had stock in Exxon about now you would be crying. :-D