Mystery solved

Indianapolis has the dubious distinction of experiencing one of the largest increases in gas prices in the nation this week, a trend that seems "a mystery" that some felt "could not be explained." . Why?

Fuel wholesaler Karl Kelb said the spate of warmer weather probably brought on a decision by many stations to raise prices.

Lifting prices would make up for losses at the pump during the recent icy weeks. When motorists drove less, he said, stations in turn lowered gas prices, using the fuel as a loss leader to lure more business into the convenience store.

Hmmm. So when demand is down, the price goes down, and when demand goes up, the price goes up, eh? There's such a beautiful symmetry there; if the results were always the same, we could even give the phenomenon a name. Let's see, whatever should be call it?