Is that a bad thing?
Oil bubble popping no, but at the rate investment companies and jumping in and how much trouble they’ll cause the economy if they continue the way they are, yes.
Don’t believe me, look at what terrible investing in housing did to the economy.
Jay, because I don’t have the time to look it up today: what SHOULD oil be at, price wise? as dictated by current & near term demands?
Subtract anywhere from 10 (spectulator suggestion of what they’ve added to the price of oil) to 70 (what a lot of economists think speculators have added to the price of oil) from the current price.
So 130-lets say 50 to be fair = $80.
Still high, but the dollar is low right now so $80 would be fair market with a weak dollar. Bump the key rate half a percent, or wait for the EU to drop their rates to battle their growing economic problems and it would fall even more.
We’re setting up for another big hit to the economy because the margin requirements on futures contracts are almost non-existant. Double the requirement and you’d see oil drop at least $30 overnight. I don’t think it would even need to go through Washington because it’s something the mercantile exchange could do. But of course they’re not going to do it because investors are making money.
I always thought oil was worth whatever people will pay for it.
Just like everything else.
The housing market is not really apples to apples.
Kudos to this guy.
Until speculation gets out of hand that’s true. It would be one thing if you wanted to buy a million dollars worth of oil contracts thinking oil would be worth more in the future and it cost you a million dollars. With the current requirements that million in oil contracts can be bought for much much less than a million. I don’t know the extact requirements but I think it would be around 100k.
The same thing happened a while ago when oil was going up after Katrina, but to a lesser extent. A big company was buying up contracts and when oil dropped back down over the summer that company went bust. Not a big deal since it was one company, but fast forward to today and there are a whole lot more making the same risky bets. If the oil bubble pops this time the fallout will be much worse, which is why I was drawing the comparison to housing.
Meh, wind is a money maker, not an energy problem solver. Don’t get me wrong, every little bit helps, but lets start talking about real solutions like nuclear power.
do you think he is going to make it to 2015?
That may be true but R&D into these kinds of technologies usually spawns breakthroughs in other areas. I just like seeing money invested in science like this that could lead us down a different path and open up other possibilities.
I agree with this because people don’t re-sell gas, but I understand the whole investing and speculation issue.
It’s hard to imagine that this will affect the economy as greatly.
Oil prices rose above $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday, hitting $130.47
honestly if you people think that $4 or 4.25 or 4.50 or even $5 gas isnt going to cripple the economy in this country your nuts. The high gas and diesel prices are just starting to trickle into every aspect of goods and services etc Come back to this post in October and realize how much food prices are going up, clothes, etc on and on it goes.
I cant wait for hurricane season. When a storm forms im sure even if its 1000 miles away the barrel will jump $5 :bloated:
I still want to kick people bitching about gas prices.
Bitch about gas mileage, all whilst driving 30 miles each way to work, in your sub-20 mpg vehicle, while stabbing the gas aggressively at every start.
Vehicles, and gasoline are a luxary/want, not a need. There are plenty of ways to live life without a vehicle of your own.
Spoiled brats got used to their $1.40/gallon gasoline.
the difference to me between $3/gallon and $4/gallon is <$15/week. of course I drive maybe 200-300 miles a week now, instead of ~1000.
I’ll get a few less timmy ho’s.
That is where it will hurt the economy, you spend less money elsewhere.
buddy my car gets 27mpg, and i live 18 miles away from my work.
You don’t realize the impact that higher gasoline costs? Almost every business is dependent on gasoline whether it’s travel reimbursement for employees, shipping goods too and from stores for various needs, plastics need petrolium to be made so it’s all related. If it were just gas prices for punters I would agree with you but as j_espo said, it’s going to trickle down to all aspects of business.
Then people need to reduce their unneeded use so supply available for needed transport is increased.
The era of cheap gas is over, learn to accept it, and no amount of bitching will change that.
Instead of bitching, make changes in your lifestyle. Live closer to work if you can, pedal to work, be light on the throttle when accellerating.
For the amount of bitching I hear about gas prices, I see very few people actually changing their living/driving habits. As if it’s their right to cheap gasoline for what can be considered a “luxary” item.
living here in NF, i see all the canadians coming over and buying their shit and then when they go to go home, they are sitting at the border for 3+ hours. how much gas is being burned up there that doesnt go back to our economy? fucking cannucks lol
actually i see alot of change happening. I actually see people car pooling to work in the am. I see people walking home from stores with bags in their hands. I see alot of mopeds/motorcycles. People are doing all their running around in 1 trip.
Everyones way of life will start to change eventually.
When my dad grew up in Buffalo people lived, worked, and shopped in their own neighborhood.
I would have loved to live 60-70 years ago when life was soooo much simpler.
Sometimes it seems the Amish have got it all figured out.
ipods, internet, etc are just distractions from living real life.