Posted on 02/26/2012 3:00:14 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
.........America’s economy is intrinsically aligned with fuel prices because the lifeblood of our economy is oil. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas will not just sting at the pump but also will put the squeeze on every American for milk and cookies at the grocery store and every product we purchase because they are all delivered to stores by truck.
...As gas prices continue to rise, consumer debt probably also will rise as American families, already strapped for cash, will use credit cards to pay for the increased fuel costs.
Ultimately, higher gas prices put the squeeze on all things related to the economy, including job creation.
Interestingly, demand for gas in America is down. Typically, when demand for something such as gas is down, prices fall. But not now. Prices at the pump continue to rise.
Whatever you do, do not blame Big Oil for the price at the pump, as Bill O'Reilly mistakenly does. The oil companies have nothing to do with setting the price of gas. Gas prices are set by oil price futures, which are the prices fuel investors think oil will cost in the future.
There are other things in play besides oil futures that are causing the price to rise. Demand for oil around the world is going up as other nations are using more of it. The higher the demand, the higher the price.
Another reason oil prices are high is the deterioration in the value of the U.S. dollar....
At four bucks a gallon or even higher, the economy will enter a severe stall... But tightening our belts and reducing spending will slam the brakes on our economy, which is, at best, only in first gear...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Welcome to America in the New Millennium, where an aging rock star has more understanding of how the world works than a boneheaded TV news clown with a seven-figure income.
It runs across all of society. Your local high school football team will ask parents to pay for the fuel to get the players to games away. After-school events? They probably will start limit those. Going to a movie on a Sunday afternoon? You probably will just download something via your computer. Used to shopping at the grocery every seven days....you might buy a second refrigerator and do it every fourteen days. Visiting the relatives for Thanksgiving? Maybe not...especially if it means $300 in gas cost.
The Left will continue driving up oil prices to limit our independence and curtail our freedom — they are determined to get us on their green buses and trains.
Have been saying that forever. Also applies to gambling and casinos..
I disagree with Ted on this and agree with O’Reilly (which I posted earlier tonight on another thread... weird)
Anyway, yes, oil is GLOBAL, but it is being drilled on OUR land. So let’s keep some of what we get to not pay GLOBAL prices.
Then YOU invest the hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure, exploration, production and refining to produce the oil from YOUR land and then YOU can sell it to yourself. Oil in the ground has no value, only potential value -- it is worth nothing until someone spends money to get it out of the ground. Then it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
O'Reilly is clueless about how the oil business works. I suspect that he knows more than he lets on, but is demagoguing this issue to boost ratings for his idiot show so that he can hawk more of his idiot books. In any event, he is wrong from start to finish on this issue and to the extent that you agree with him, so are you.
I would gladly invest the money. Unfortunately you do not grasp that politicians pick the winners and losers in this field.
So you can squawk free market all day long, but in the oil field there IS no ‘free market.’
Largely because people who think like you do have over-regulated and attempted to control the market. And now, your solution is to impose additional controls, by dictating to whom the oil companies may sell their product, regardless of whether such is done at a profit or loss.
Bill O'Reilly, Hugo Chavez and you -- three peas in a pod.
What did you expect? I mean it’s not like Mr Nugent has been running around cheating on his wife and kids with interns at a News Station. He didn’t even threaten his soon to be ex-wife and her new boyfriend.
If I lived in a nearby bedroom community like some of my fellow coworkers, it would be closer to $800..
I am like Hugo Chavez because I think oil drilled on federal land should be subject to an export tax?
Whatever dude.
No - because you can't grasp that the prices are being artificially modified due to politicians exerting controls they have no right to exert. Left to do business as a capitalist entity, unfettered by government controls and regulations designed to cripple them, oil companies would continue to serve us with affordable and abundant energy. Not only is government inflating the price of oil, but it makes more "profit" via taxes per gallon than the oil companies do.
Visiting the relatives for Thanksgiving? Maybe not...especially if it means $300 in gas cost. ..........................Boy, can we relate to that, all our kids are spread out over the country. It could be worse, we could have used an RV to visit them (We don’t own one.). We use 2 4cyl. cars now to get around. Our 6 cyl. car cost us a small fortune last year in gas. Any candidate that can get the fuel costs down will win easily.IMHO
Yes.
When an administration says "Drill Here, Drill Now- lift those restrictions" - gas prices plummet even before the first 'new' drill bit hits earth.
When and administration says "No drilling, stop drilling, cease operations in certain areas, No Keystone" the futures go up.
When an administration toys with "Algae Fuel is the future" and the technology is expensive or too new (I've heard it's at $26/gal right now for that stuff) The market place doesn't even have to 'gamble' with a projection and places their bets on high costs - raising the costs now....that future is a no-brainer.
Personally, I am praying for $6 a gallon gas by election day.
“Personally, I am praying for $6 a gallon gas by election day.”
It won’t make a bit of a difference insofar as “Obama’s people” are concerned.
They’re going to vote for him anyway.
The “entitlees” are not going to abandon “the party of entitlement” at the polls. That they might do so defies logic. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Amen, brother Cincinatus!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.