Gas Prices Could've Been A Whole Lot Higher

Gas prices are near their highest levels in a year, about $3.67 a gallon, as troubles in Iraq have been causing oil futures to pop.

But it could be way worse for U.S. drivers. Thanks to the U.S. shale boom, global balances have remained largely in tact despite outages elsewhere. Plus, there still hasn't been a major outage of Iraqi barrels since April, when a pipeline into Turkey came under attack.

Here's the percent-change-from-year-ago chart via FRED. We are just 3% above where we were this time last year:

And another view, from AAA. 2014 is in red. The agency says we're looking at the highest July 4 gas price levels since 2008 - but again, we've already been at higher levels earlier this year.

"Market concerns about a supply disruption in Iraq are calming," said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA.

While traders are hedging in case things take a turn for the worse in the Middle East, for now we are not seeing anything terribly out of the ordinary.