Spending money can be a lot of fun, while saving money can be pretty boring. Sure, you get to watch your account grow — assuming you invest it wisely — thinking about spending it someday, though thinking about that someday is not nearly as much fun as spending today.

Alaskans like to take chances, buy raffle tickets and place bets. Whether fun trips to Vegas, time at their local bar playing pull-tabs, guessing where the sanitized and hardened moose “nuggets” will land when dropped from the air on a grid in Anchorage, or making it down an icy hill without chains. 

Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drove oil prices higher — over $100 a barrel for several months — so too are the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, and Iran’s counterattacks, sending prices upward.