Expect higher prices for all oil-based products

Crule oil futures closed at $138.5/barrel today.

Is there anything that's not going up? I can't wait to hear McCain say *he* will be the guy to jawbone Big Oil. Only last week Dow Chemical CEO raised prices 20% and warned of significant inflation driving up costs throughout the economy.

Besides gasoline, the Department of Energy calculates, there are 57 major uses of petroleum – everything from cosmetics to ballpoint pens, nylons, and even the waxes in chewing gum.

That is why the effect of high oil prices is now spreading well beyond the pump, where gasoline hit another record price of $3.98 a gallon on Wednesday. Now, consumers will have to brace themselves for other higher costs, since businesses such as Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, and Colgate-Palmolive are raising prices on their products to recoup energy costs.

And here's another use for oil. Every product in America had to get to the store somehow, and that probably involved a vehicle using gasoline.