Recently we visited family in the Midwest, where my father-in-law was nothing short of indignant over the price of gasoline - nearly two dollars a gallon!

But isn't it funny how quickly many of us younger whippersnappers get used to paying what used to seem like an outrageous amount of money for a gallon of gas?

The news this week is that gas prices are going to keep climbing in March as wholesalers and retailers catch up with the big jump in crude oil prices. Global supplies of oil and gas are called adequate, but the speculators aren't buying it.

Not buying the argument, that is, because in fact they are said to be buying lots of gasoline futures contracts and driving up the price for the rest of us.

We saw gas prices run up this high last autumn. The big worry then (and now) was how will this affect the economy. Consumer spending wasn't quite as strong in the fourth quarter as it was throughout the rest of 2004 , but it held up reasonably well.

Today's weekly chain store sale numbers edged lower, but that comes after a very strong week, and the year-over-year increase held up well, so that's not a worry.

With jobs growing faster lately, maybe consumers will continue to be able to keep spending on clothes and restaurant meals, even as they pay more to drive their cars. What I wonder is how high do gas prices have to go and how long do they have to stay there before whippersnappers like me get as indignant as my father-in-law? And when will gas prices take a bigger bite out of the economy?

Stay tuned.

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-- Kathleen Hays is economics correspondent for CNN and contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.