Forgetting the 1970s Gas Lines, at Our Peril

Unless we’d like to repeat that era, we ought to keep its price controls firmly in the rearview mirror.

With gas prices at near-record highs and whispers of summer diesel shortages in the air, now is as good a time as ever to revisit the oil shocks of the 1970s. Almost half a century on, we’re tempted to chuckle at the photographs of supersized cars curled around the block waiting to fill up. Sometimes we can even spot a bell-bottomed man pushing a lawnmower or a stray child with a Dorothy Hamill haircut,...