When you have two people working in a family and driving 30+ miles ONE WAY to work in population centers a doubling of gas prices adds hundreds of dollars a month to the family expenses.
As a car averages 20 miles per gallon a sixty mile daily commute would cost $4.50 a day per driver at $1.50 a gallon. At $4.00 per gallon, close to the average the last six years, it is $12 a day per driver. A difference of $7.50 a day or $150. per month. PER DRIVER or $300 per month per household.
Many suburban households where so tight that the additional $300 per month caused them to fall behind on credit cards, car loans, and even mortgages. Add in a rocky job market and disaster happens.
In some exurban communities, more than 25% of all home loans where X's 3 delinquent.IE: they where either IN or heading into foreclosure.
$35 per barrel is right around where oil should be based on the massive amount of recoverable oil that we have available. Certainly less than $40 is called for. Couple that with soft demand. Especially in China, where it WILL NOT recover, and we have a recipe for cheap gas for the next decade. Not even Obama can screw this up, though he is trying.
There was a column in my Gannett generipaper via USAToday last week by some black guy who said
Republicans talk about “drill baby drill” but Obama is the one who made it happen.
The sad part is a lot of the population will believe this...