In a further blow to an already strained economy, oil prices reached $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday, February 26, raising fears that by spring consumers will be paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.

Kenneth S. Rogoff, an economist at Harvard speaking to The New York Times said, "The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession."

According to AAA, the national average price for gasoline on Tuesday was $3.14 a gallon, a significant increase over the 2007 figure of $2.35 and indicative of a 19 cent per gallon climb in just two weeks. Diesel hit a record at $3.60 a gallon over $2.62 a year ago.

With increasing demand at the onset of spring and summer, analysts are predicting prices above those set during Memorial Day weekend 2007 when Americans paid on average $3.23 a gallon. The record price, when adjusted for inflation and expressed in today's money, would be $3.40 in 1981.

Over the past six years the price of oil has increased four-fold and is now just below the inflation-adjusted record of $103.76 in April 1980. (The price in 1980 dollars was $39.50.)

Americans are improving their energy use with the demand for oil growing only 0.4 percent in 2007 and predicted to be flat for 2008. The price of gasoline, however, added to tight credit and the crisis in the housing market, does not bode well for consumers.