It's been an ugly picture at the gas pump across the nation -- nothing like a year ago -- but ugly nonetheless. For 6 straight weeks, the price of gas has gone up every single day. In fact, the price of a gallon jumped by a whole dollar in little over a month.

Now, consider this: Inventories of unrefined oil are at near historic highs. Meanwhile, the International Energy Association reports demand is down 2.6 million barrels/day from a year ago.

So if demand for gas is down and supply is up, what gives?

Clark's best guess -- and this is only a guess -- is that investors and institutions are pouring money that they had on the sidelines into the commodities markets. So this something of a spec buyer's run-up we're seeing in price.

The one thing Clark doesn't believe is that we're seeing yet another conspiracy theory play out where Big Oil orchestrates new ways to rip us off at the pump.

The current run-up in price is a temporary cycle in the consumer champ's estimation. Sure, it's been more expensive than he projected before the unofficial start of summer. But Clark does believe the price mania will start to decline after the July 4 holiday weekend.

We'll have to wait and see what happens…