Katie Couric's Notebook: Isn't It Ironic?

It's ironic in an Alanis Morissette kind of way that gas prices are down now that the summer travel months are behind us. A USA Today poll from earlier in the year found that a third of Americans canceled vacations because of pain at the pump.

But in the past few days, gas station managers couldn't change those signs fast enough. The prices are dropping quickly…back to below three dollars a gallon in many areas. Crude oil…which makes up a big chunk of the price of gas…has fallen 44 percent since the spring.

Not to be the black fly in your chardonnay, but cheaper gas is kind of a mixed blessing. It means demand is down and people are spending less.

Some economists say it's a harbinger of a coming recession and possibly more job losses. If that's true, those four dollar gallons we bemoaned might have been a good thing. That's either ironic, or just the law of supply and demand economics.