Money – The country's economic health deteriorated further in the early spring as shoppers buckled under the strains of the housing and credit debacles and a weaker employment climate.
What gets me is , the rise in gas prices has hurt everyone and is crippling the economy but yet the price keeps going up and up , like they are saying , "We can't figure out why the economy is so bad lets raise gas price again to see if that makes it better " .
Terrorist don't need planes or weapons anymore they just control the Energy sector Commodity Trading and hurt us more than physical attacks ever could .
Petroleum prices wouldn't have anything to do with worldwide demand for petroleum now would they?
To some extent it does but doesn't deserve all the credit when one considers that you are buying gas with a dollar that isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
The dollar index has fallen by 42% since 2002. Oil prices reflect this.
Gold has risen dramatically since 2002. Oil has been on a parity with gold since 1939!
Despite any fluctuation in demand, supply of petroleum CAN BE and IS carefully regulated.
Merry Christmas! By December, 2008, oil will be ABOVE $200 per barrel! Gasoline? I wouldn't even venture to guess. I did pay $4.31/gal for diesel fuel today. Didn't buy much, and I'm using that truck VERY sparingly from now on!
"Petroleum prices wouldn't have anything to do with worldwide demand for petroleum now would they?"
Look into why they're so high instead of making sarcastic comments based in ignorance. It's not unmanipulated supply and demand, that's for certain.
O.K. tell us, Dionitwit..... why are petroleum prices so high?
- - Hold on, let me adjust my tinfoil hat... there...
O.K., I'm all ears. Why are petroleum prices so high?
Sainte...name-calling, again?
........" why are petroleum prices so high?..."
I guess we could bore everyone to death with the complicated economics of it. We could also refer you to sites that have tracked parity between grams of gold/barrel of oil.
Common sense and one's own spending habits reveal that the price of anything we have ever bought depends on how much we want it, how badly we need it, or what is is REALLY worth to us.
If one has ever FAILED to purchase something because it was "too expensive" then it really wasn't worth the price. The converse is true.
Folks were convinced they'd sell homes at huge short term profits and borrowed accordingly. They risked all and got hit. Others used 0% credit card offers, overspent (since it was not REAL money) missed a payment and saw interest rates zoom to 34%, as agreed in the fine print.
Gasoline? Diesel fuel? The price will rise until people STOP buying it. At 5,6,7 per gallon it will still be "worth" it.
"Gasoline? Diesel fuel? The price will rise until people STOP buying it. At 5,6,7 per gallon it will still be "worth" it."
Exactly right. And it'll still be worth it at 14, 15, 16 dollars per gallon. For as long as there are lunkheads who can't get out of their cars, or start their day without a six-dollar cup of latte, or stop caving in to their brats' demands for every cheap, lead-laced toy from China, there will be expensive gasoline to fill their demand.
$4 a gallon for gas? That's highway robbery. We should be paying at LEAST $9 a gallon by now. Considering the cost of a 16-ounce mocha latte, $4 a gallon for gas is a steal.
I agree with you on that one, snt, and with the down turn of the economy those are exactly the choices that are being made by U.S. consumers.
Alas, though, when people start making more rational purchasing decisions, the Wall Street tycoons become worried by the lowered spending and start yelling to the Fed to increase the money supply (thereby lowering interest rates and increasing spending again).
Thus, Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury, and ex-Wall Street CEO) and the Fed pump a new $200 billion into circulation, which pleases Wall Street greatly (especially the $30 billion that is now lining the pockets of the J.P. Morgan folks) but trashes the idea of a more rational rate of consumer spending.
Wonder why the dollar is slipping relative to the Euro and other currencies?
And I agree with you - government should get OUT of the market and allow it to do what it's going to do. The Federal Reserve should be eliminated. It does nothing but cause problems and/or exacerbate existing ones. I don't care WHO is in the White House - Rep. or Dems., government needs to get their hands OFF the market.
I disagree with you re: Wall Street tycoons. I'm sure very few people who work on Wall Street would welcome MORE government meddling in the economy. When more money is pumped into the economy, the economy slows, and the stock market heads south. What's more, it takes longer for a recovery from a recession.
The problem is that everyone is looking for a quick fix to the economy, and it doesn't work that way. Everyone is just going to have to take their licks and ride out a recession and come out on the other end. Attempting to "stop" a recession - or "fix" it, will only make it longer and more deeply-seated.
"Look into why they're so high instead of making sarcastic comments based in ignorance. It's not unmanipulated supply and demand, that's for certain."
Would help if certain members of our society would stop fighting expanded domestic oil exploration and drilling. Yes, OPEC has a strong control of the international market, but we get most of our oil from Canada.
To say increased demand for oil in China and India has nothing to do higher gas prices in the U.S. is pure ignorance in itself.
"Terrorists don't need planes or weapons anymore they just control the Energy sector Commodity Trading and hurt us more than physical attacks ever could"
Hmmmm.... are you beginning to see why it's important that we keep our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, protect our interests and try to instill a modicum of rationality in a backwards, nutty, hostile region?
"Hmmmm.... are you beginning to see why it's important that we keep our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, protect our interests and try to instill a modicum of rationality in a backwards, nutty, hostile region? "
Are you beginning to see the need for not being dependent on Oil? Oh I know you *are* being the saint of taking the bus, biking and encouraging your tens of thousands of employees to do the same..
Bush is a very pious man. He met the pope at the airport. He is just now talking about protecting the environment.
Give the man a chance. He only chose to break our laws 750 times during his presidency. He did this because he was only protecting you. Don't blame the war, the economy, the state of our nation on Bush. He's a very pious man.
Because without billions, and tens of billions, in new government debt the Fed won't be able to utterly destroy the U.S. economy and reduce 99% of the American people to servitude quickly enough?
Face it, the U.S. of A. is now being run by the Fed in exactly the same way coal companies ran 'company towns' 100 years ago.
And your company scrip is only good at the company store, and the company owns your house, and ...
That sounds just like any country with a monetary and banking system.
Taking it that further step that is, perhaps, implied here... I am glad to see that at least some of you are wanting to keep government out of the arena of ownership of your businesses, homes and out of the role of payroll provider and/or public nipple. Conservatism still has a chance.
jim,
"Conservatism still has a chance." Not today's conservatives.
The fiscal conservatives of yesterday have been replaced by the social conservative of today who would like have government dictate our moral values. They've spent so much time and effort to exact those values while Nero has been fiddling in order to retain power for his party. Case in point, gay-marriage initiatives.
Add to that the current conservative voices that would deregulate everything as if "market share" and "profits" are the 2 new commandments chiseled into what Moses brought down from Zion. An example of that is the way financial institutions avoided insuring speculative hedge funds of mortgages because insurance companies would have to report their transactions to state governments. That has had a double impact; insurance companies have to pay for the losses incurred by the financial institutions as they roil in red ink funded by investors.
Barry's spinning in his grave.
Nero's dead.
saint,
And GW might as well be also.
That since he took office his administration has allowed the dollar to drop, incurred $10 trillion in debt, as a former oil exec the price of crude rose more that 33%, and our international leadership to flag to a limp he should act like the Roman Emperor he seems to emulate and take his own life figuratively.
Even Herbert Hoover, who was abandoned by his banker friend at the beginning of the Depression, had a better rating than this bozo. Jimmy Carter could not have done worse.
You should welcome (or at least accept) petroleum prices to be high so as to encourage market-based migration away from carbon based energy sources, right?
jim,
After 30 years of pushing for that to begin (1973 oil embargo ring a bell?) now we see just why we should have started sooner. Never mind that everyone from Congress, the oil companies, the auto industry (how long did it take them to make a car to compete with Japan gas mileage-wise?) to the American consumer's death spiral love with muscle cars, failed to be aware of the impending doom.
The proverbial hens have come to roost and no American government since Nixon has been doing a thing.
Remember when the national speed limit of 55mph was dropped and which Congress did that?
Carter tried... even put solar panels on the white house.. one of the first things Reagan did was take them down.. and have Carter's energy package dismantled..
Carter? The Same president who ushered in the rare feat of double digit inflation AND unemployment? Yeah, he was such a great leader! LOL
i never said he was.. but he at least had the vision of less dependence on OIL and especially on FOREIGN OIL...
Inflation that was basically inherited and unemployment.. ending the Vietnam war.. caused a lot of people to be out of work..
you certain LOL but couldn't dispute what the post was about...
by the way i found your picture.....
Yes, you are right, Carter had the beginning of a national energy policy. Reagan stopped it and today we are starting to pay the price. Remember Reaganomics? It's legacy lives on. The price of cheap oil in the late 80's is being paid today.
Everyone should enjoy cheap oil while they can. I'm taking a long driving vacation this summer while gas is still cheap:)
hilarious,
And you remember that how? Weren't you a little turdblossom playing with your toys then?
BTW, Jimmy's tenure looks a lot better in retrospect than this bozo. As a matter of fact, GW would have to jump in order to kiss Jimmy's tukus, he's so far down in the hole that he only sees daylight at noon.
jim, you should know by now that Libs are never happy. With ANYthing.
-They whine if the price of oil is cheap (people would be wasteful and the planet would be harmed).
-They whine when prices of oil go up.
-They whine when we want to drill in the U.S. (it's not "environmentally-friendly")
-They whine when we're forced to buy oil overseas.
-They whine that biofuel production does more harm than good.
I hear lots of whining, but I see precious little action on their part to walk, ride a bike, take the bus, take a subway, carpool or telecommute.
They whine that the government, the oil companies, big business, their neighbor, Martha Stewart, ANYBODY... needs to do something about it. Anybody but them, that is.
The Liberal Credo:
"SOMEbody, SOMEwhere.... SAVE US from OURSELVES!!!! Because I can't make changes in my own life, I need SOMEONE to DO IT FOR ME! WAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
For the past 30 years attempts to promote reduced consumption have been overturned first by Regan, who overturned the efforts of Carter, then Bush 1 and now by Bush 2. During Clinton the price of oil was low and stable so only modest attempts were realistic.
"For the past 30 years attempts to promote reduced consumption have been overturned"
Why do you need the government to tell you to reduce consumption? JUST DO IT!!!!!! For GOD SAKE, LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE and take some PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, instead of waiting around and being instructed to do so by the government.
Does the government inform every decision you make? Every choice you make in a day, cracksnot - is that the government's responsibility to oversee?
"The government isn't promoting reduced consumption, so I guess I'm not going to do it....." Do you realize how STUPID that sounds? And you, cracksnot, call yourself a liberal and an activist. I see very little liberating thought and very, VERY little activism coming from you nutty lefties. If you were truly active, you all would have banded together, gotten out of your cars and made the oil companies EAT their oil by now.
But that would require effort on your part....
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Greed works it's magic.
Played golf with two foursomes of my "competitors" today. We all agreed to raise our prices to our customers to reflect the increase in our transportation costs due to the rising cost of fuel. Instead of cutting each other's throats to see who could be "the last man standing", we agreed to cooperate for our mutual benefit. Since wholesale prices have risen, retail prices will rise, but none of us will fold and have to put any more people out of work. We're as lean today as we've ever been. There's enough market to support all of us. We'll weather this storm. We always do