By Rick Glaze

I was shocked when I first heard that Hawaii has no more gas caps. After all, that could be dangerous. Just imagine all those tourists screeching past the pristine, white sand beaches trailing flames from their white Toyota Corolla rentals like they were their personal Batmobiles. I shudder to think of it.

I was sure that there had to be a relief agency set up to take donations. Cash is difficult to donate, though, because people and even agencies have sticky fingers. I recall something about the 9/11 boatloads of cash that poured into “agencies” that decided it was too much for those victims and made rumblings of spreading it around to unrelated causes.

After checking my gas cap, I drove down to the auto parts store, and guess what? Gas caps are only a few dollars, so I felt that I could send a few over to needy tourists.

But the clerk at the store told me that the island state has plenty of gas caps; it’s actually that the cap on the price of wholesale gas had been suspended. It turns out that it didn’t work - that is, it didn’t control gas prices at the pump because retailers could charge whatever they wanted.

Now the governor of Hawaii has suggested to legislators that they consider placing limits on oil company profits, which would have the desired effect of driving some companies from the state and limiting supply. That could lead to higher prices, inflationary pressures and a stagnant economy. The clerk at the auto parts store told me he didn’t think that would be a very good idea.

He may be right. After all, he was right about the gas caps.

Rick Glaze is the president of Glaze Capital Management of Los Altos and is a registered representative of and offers securities through First Allied Securities Inc. For more

information, call 934-0920.