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Bush’s fault.
I don’t believe that there is NOT mega profits being made, despite all the spin by economics folks here at FR and even folks like Rush.
One has to wonder if the price of oil is being driven up deliberately by hedge funds (hello! George Soros).
Speculating on the speculators?
I’m suprised that the enemedia isn’t front-paging every quarter-dollar rise in price...
Oil now $9.25 -(war for oil)
Oil now $9.50 -(Illegally in Iraq)
Oil now $9.75 -(women and minorities hardest hit)
I’ll give them time. They rarely dissapoint.
The only conspiracy is that of the left: No coal, no drilling, no new refineries. All of that hurts.
The profit made is irrelevant. The price is set on the open world market. If oil companies are making huge profits, it’s just their good fortune. If we were using alternatives, the oil companies would not make so much.
The collapsing dollar is an excellent point. That’s definately complicating things.
Bottom line is there is a tipping point. Is it $4/gal for gas? Not sure. But wherever that tipping point is, when we hit it, there will be a major contraction of the economy. I say this as someone who lived through the gas shortages, and that contraction, along with Jimmah Cartah, made my decision to go into the USN easy.
Other than staying as debt free as possible, not sure how to prepare for the coming contraction. Might be a good time to sell an SUV, before they achieve white elephant status.
The Chicaom supplied dollar stores will boom because of the cash and credit crunched as low to middle income people and credit-maxed people scramble just for necessities like soap, TP, canned food, etc. Rent on apartments will stay the same, but will most likely drop 30% on single-family detached homes.
Simple, food, shelter, energy will be what the US consumer tries to pay for for the next 36 months. Wages will not increase though employers will charge more for increased business costs and medical coverage will continue to rise as well as homeowners and auto insurance co.'s will also continue to push up their premiums to recover their investment losses in the sub-prime underwriter categories.
Watch the real trickle-down effect of all of this.
I read yesterday that the net effect of the shrink-back (valuation loss of the dollar) in our economy is going to be in the neighborhood of $7-9 trillion dollars from conservative estimates in the next 12 months. With all this coming down, don't forget, our lovely government at all levels is going to raise taxes and fees as that they will never cut their spending or the size of what they do becaseu"they have to maintain the level of service" (LOL!).
This is not being negative, but, realistic as to the magnitude of our greed and arrogance.
Time to pay the fiddler for the tune.
Where's Grandma Polosi on this. She claimed before the last election, elect Dims and "we will take care of the price of gas for you."
I guess she was SERIOUS about that!
Does Mexico have refineries? Or, just oil?
Weak dollar reflected in the prices....mucho speculation on the trading floors and increasing demand....surprised?
Christmas time is going to find many trees sitting in living rooms with 40% less gifts than last year. Everyone I know is practically working 2 jobs or working more overtime than they ever have and their gas budget has a lot to do with it.
Oh, wait a minute. I think I get the picture now. Never mind.
Wait until the Saudis and others reject the American dollar.