The rapidly failing economy will change Demographics! At what point can Americans no longer afford to work where and at where they want but must settle for less to survive?
Okay it is "high"time we talk about it no not pot! I have been thinking about much of this for years but at one time here in America it was thought of as Communistic or something! However the time has come. First I have to tell you, what is happening to our oil prices does not have me a happy camper. I would not be averse to the daily skyrocketing prices if I did not know speculators, the mega rich were driving up the prices, only to become obscenely wealthy at the expense of average Americans. I am insulted watching as the Average Americans life gets increasingly tenuous because of regulations put in by Bush to further enrich the affluent while squeezing you ever tighter and those that should don't friggen get it and Bush just denies it and carries on! . The middle class has to be dropped a little lower and the purposely established new societal order Bush has been actively implementing at least since 2004 with a working class to service the affluent is almost finished. you see natural causes being allowed to do just that highlighted by Katrina and New Orleans. Anyway I am concerned this will all come to a head around election time and it will lead to total world chaos! I have written so many books, Pamphlets, Stories, Letters to Politicians, Media outlets, over the years I think I am ready to give up.
With that said world wide chaos aside, this is all coming to a head societally and of late I have found myself wondering at what point can average Americans no longer afford to work? Or to have to relocate because of the price of oil and gas! I hate to say it but I see some positive things coming out of all this. I keep seeing stories of people hawking everything they own so they can keep ahead of the debt collectors. There are daily stories of people Hawking their gold teeth and Pawn shops doing an increasingly lucrative business. Our society was going the route of the Roman Empire which is normal in the cycle of life of a society. Bush has merely sped up that process along with everything else. work place killings, murder suicides, and mass shootings and killings are increasing as societal conditions get increasingly tenuous. Most recently this was highlighted yesterday by a string of shootings in New York City that left 8 wounded
I can remember after 9/11 when the idiots in charge stupidly said no one is going to change our way of life! in the same token I remember when oil first started skytrocketing and gas at the pump started climbing. People stupidly said they'll never curb my driving. Well! in both instances even a fool can tell you, you are only saying "Thank You Sir give me another" You are just asking for things to get worse. as a little child I learned shut up or put up period and most people are to naive to realize that. as I said about any fool! At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate. The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.
Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942. According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before. Tracy and Adam Crews posted on iReport that their annual Memorial Day weekend has traditionally involved camping and fishing. "Well, due to the continual rise in gas, we felt our only recourse was to nix the idea this year and stay home" in Jacksonville, Florida, they wrote. Instead, the couple said they "decided to camp out in the backyard. We set the tent up, just finished installing our above ground pool, and cleaned up the grill. ... We have ourselves a campsite! It's been a blast!"
Nakeisha Easterwood of Smyrna, Georgia, said with gas prices on the rise, she sometimes catches rides with friends, and doesn't drive into town more than once a day. "It's crazy," she said. According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day. "With it being near $4 a gallon, you definitely have to drive slower and pick and choose when you're going to do it," said Steve Kahn of Roswell, Georgia, at a Memorial Day festival in Atlanta. Some Americans have turned to public transportation. Ridership increased by 2.1 percent in 2007, in part because of rising gas prices, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years, the group said. The Energy Information Administration says gas consumption for the first three months of 2008 is estimated to be down about 0.6 percent from the same time period in 2007. people are learning to compromise
* The compromises are just beginning and I hate to say it when this is done we will be better, stronger, and more servicable and functional as a society but we have some changes to make. Gas prices have been increasing for 20 straight days. Here in New England it is the price of heating oil next year and beyond that has me concerned! As I keep hearing of hot gas compensation, a gas tax holiday, using our oil reserves, curbing oil co. tax incentives, I hate to say it people but you are screwed. They have your number, they know Bush is complicit, and Congress is worthless. This is just beginning and I see $10 gas at the pump in the not too distant future. What would that do to your lifestyle? Let me give you an idea!
** People have begun to evaluate their daily habits.Do I have to go out to eat? Do I need those trinkets? new clothes? Can I find a cheaper place to shop? A closer place? Do we need that vacation? Can we stay local? Aah Local now there is the key. There is our future. Go back to your roots. It is normal but most Americans are not use to compromise. Get use to it. I was wondering how much higher does the price of gas have to be before many people can no longer afford to work and would be forced to make a compromise that in the end may be better for them, society, and our communities? Think of your situation or maybe you don't want to but last weeks AAA study showed it cost an estimated $850 per month to own a car. You can handle that at at $10 an hour if you lived with your parents, had a room mate, or cheap rent. $20 an hour would do it and give you a comfortable place to live and you could own a house and continue to drive to work if there was 2 making that money and you were lucky enough not to get caught by those teaser rate mortgage loans. What it all boils down to is many people are screwed and if they are to make it we have to go back to the way society was in 1942 and we will be all the better for it though you may not like it!!
*** I see the necessity for people to maybe take a lesser paying job to stay local. I see a return to down towns. A resurgence of local life. a return of local stores, local theaters, and local points of concern and interest. I see a return of public interest in their cities,more concern over what is happening their, more community involvement. I do not like what is happening but I see it bring many families and communities back together as only hard times can and sadly you see it every day. It will soon be not because of natural disasters but our own man made disasters. We will persevere!
James Joiner
Gardner Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
24 comments:
The high cost of gas has already affected us. We do have two cars, my husbands car is a older model Buick and uses a lot of gas. He drives it maybe once a month, when I have our other car. We haven't yet taken a road trip but when we do, we will be staying within a days drive from home.
We have had light rail for a few years and if we want to take in a ball game or go to our downtown area we use it.
My daughter and I planned to visit a town about four hours drive from here for a celebration but now she is having second thoughts. We will go but a year ago we wouldn't even thought about not going.
Maybe it is time to stay within our own communities and enjoy what they have to offer. We live in a beautiful state and yet have not seen even half of what the state has to offer.
However it is the reason behind this gas pricing that has me so upset. I can live with the prices if I didn't know the real reason they are so high. Good and thoughtful post as always.
At what point can Americans no longer afford to work where and at where they want...
Maybe that'll turn around the elitists and lower-income whites! :o)
What about this Jim,
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Time to do something about oil
By Martin Hutchinson
The oil price rise of more than US$50 per barrel since the US Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates in September is beginning to get serious. Since the rise of oil import prices alone removes $170 billion from the US economy, more than 1% of gross domestic product, it is both inflationary and highly recession-producing, especially since it has been accompanied by similar rises in other commodity prices. Its full effects have not been seen yet but they're coming - don't worry! At some point we are probably going to have to do something about it. The question is: what?
In general, the populist clamor to "do something" about a sharp
move in commodity prices makes no sense. The price mechanism acts as a shock absorber for supply and demand hiccups, so that if storms shut down the Gulf oil platforms or rapid growth in China causes its use of automobiles to soar, oil price rises can signal to other consumers to cut back consumption and to producers to enter into new exploration projects.
That's why the fuel subsidies in Third World countries are foolish. They encourage the consumption of a substance that is increasingly scarce and at times like the present impose an appalling burden on local taxpayers or the government's financing mechanisms (as in India, where government deficits threaten to derail that country's magnificent economic boom.)
While oil prices were rising from $20 to $80 per barrel in 2002-07, this rationale seemed unquestionable. The rise was gradual, and the price remained well within the parameters that the world economy had survived, albeit with some difficulty, in the early eighties. (Although the peak 1980 price of $40 per barrel was equivalent to about $105 in today's dollars, that peak was ephemeral; the major economic effect of expensive oil came from the roughly six years of oil prices hovering around $30, or $70-80 in today’s dollars, in 1980-85.)
However, the $50 rise since September has been sudden, has taken oil prices to a level never before experienced, and shows no sign of abating. Its principal short-term cause has been the excessive lowering of interest rates and relaxation of credit conditions in the United States and elsewhere, but there are a number of long-term factors which may make it difficult to reverse.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is said to be producing a study showing that future oil supplies will be more restricted than had been thought, topping out at about 100 million barrels per day rather than the 115 million that had been thought necessary to accommodate the world's growth to 2030. The IEA's new caution is probably inevitable, given the rise in prices and the considerable uncertainty in reserve and production estimates; it's mostly a matter of IEA geologists seeing the inexorable rise in prices and deciding to use more pessimistic assumptions about future trends.
In any case, since current production is only around 85 million barrels per day, the decline in estimated future production is not an immediate problem. However, its psychological effect on the market is considerable.
Whatever the views of the IEA, it should be clear that the recent rise in oil prices is not driven by fundamentals. Economists differ about the price elasticity of oil, but the lowest plausible estimates for short-term price elasticity are around 10%, with medium-term elasticity being much higher. Thus if oil legend T Boone Pickens is right that oil supplies are currently 85 million barrels per day and oil demand is 87 million, that is a supply shortfall of 2.4%, which at a 10% elasticity should produce a price increase of 24%, not 60%.
The principal influence behind the huge rise in oil prices has been speculation, whether by the international oil companies, by hedge funds deprived of easy pickings in the housing and equities markets, or by the oil suppliers themselves, drunk with the glory of their new-found wealth. Naturally, easy money provided by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, European counterpart Jacques Trichet and the rest of the gang since September has empowered the speculators. Indeed, while real interest rates remain below zero oil speculators would appear to be on to a one-way bet, provided they are rich enough to sustain their buying - and the combined resources of the world's hedge funds, oil companies and dubious energy-rich Third World dictators are very great indeed.
Hence if we do nothing, but continue to focus on housing, consumer inflation and the NBA playoffs, oil prices will continue rising. This will have only a modest short-term effect, but a highly damaging effect in the medium term, as the recession-producing tendency of high oil prices works its malign magic on the long-suffering world economy.
Further rises are additionally dangerous because they may not quickly be reversed. In a market of entirely rational trading robots, the 1980 oil price spike to $40 might have been just a spike, with prices reverting within weeks to the $15 or so that was then the equilibrium. In the world of fallible speculators and other humans, the psychology of a rise to $40 made the price "sticky" on the downside at around $30, so that it was November 1985 before prices collapsed to $10. Thus if the oil price soars to $200 next week, we are probably condemned to $150 oil until 2013 or so, after which the price will collapse to $25 for several decades, as new supplies and bizarre and expensive government-mandated conservation schemes overwhelm the market.
To avoid this dreadful fate, what should we do? There are a number of possibilities:
We could invade somewhere. Considered as an oil acquisition exercise, Operation Iraqi Freedom has been a smashing success, and only appalling Wilsonian wimpiness in the US government has prevented the United States from taking full advantage of it. Iraq's known oil reserves have been increased by about 100 billion barrels since the invasion, as competent US oil companies have been free to explore for new oil employing techniques more advanced than the 40-year-old dowsing sticks used by Saddam's oil operation. At today's oil price of $130, less a generous $20 for drilling and extraction, those additional reserves have a value of $11 trillion, or approximately 10 times the most alarmist estimate of the cost of the war to date.
The problem is that the US did not secure itself a proper royalty on the new oil finds (even 10% would have been worthwhile - $1.1 trillion over the next few decades.) Nor did it ensure, by setting up a privatized oil company and a trust fund for the Iraqi people diverting oil revenues from the Iraqi government, that the new oil finds would be exploited in an efficient manner and the supplies directed properly into the world oil market. Any future invasion of an oil-producing country should avoid these two mistakes and thus make itself self-financing.
The obvious place to invade is Venezuela (even if current estimates of Venezuelan and Saudi reserves are wrong and there is in reality more oil in Saudi Arabia that could be unlocked if ExxonMobil and the boys were given free rein, the Saudis are nominally our allies, so an invasion would be considered unsporting by world opinion.) Since the 1.8 trillion barrels of Venezuelan oil deposits consist largely of the Orinoco tar sands, a Venezuelan oil-related invasion would impose an additional requirement: to keep the environmentalists away in order that reserves could be exploited with maximum efficiency.
For those who feel that invasion-for-oil is altogether too Bismarckian in its implications, there are other alternatives. The most effective would be to use the interest-rate weapon, reversing the damage caused by the cuts since September and ideally going a little further, to fight the resulting consumer price inflation. A series of small interest rate rises would not be effective, because it would enable speculators to adjust. (The 0.25% rate rises in 2004-06, all 17 of them, we now know were completely ineffective in quelling housing speculation as they allowed the speculating frog to bask in the gradually warming interest rate water, rather than being forced by a sudden temperature rise to jump out of the saucepan.)
The most effective interest rate trajectory would probably be an immediate reversal of the post-September cuts, jumping the Federal Funds rate from 2% back to 5.25%. This would still be too low to be effective in fighting consumer price inflation, currently around 4% even on the suspect government figures. However it should shock commodity speculators sufficiently to cause a sharp drop in oil and commodity prices which might, if we were lucky, become self-reinforcing enough to push oil prices down to the $80 level, which is probably the lowest we can currently expect. Once the immediate effect of higher interest rates had worn off, further rate rises, probably to around an 8% Federal Funds rate, would be needed to wring out inflation, but those could be undertaken over the next 18-24 months in the normal manner.
It is quite certain that the interest rate weapon, if used with sufficient vigor, would quell oil prices, but it's not entirely clear whether a single rise to 5.25% would do it. However, draconian rate rises beyond 5.25% to quell oil price rises would be deeply unpopular and would cause further catastrophe in the US housing market. Since invasion is presumably off the table, the political classes may thus attempt to impose other remedies for high oil prices, all of which would be either counterproductive, disastrous or both. These might include some or all of the following:
Price controls on oil companies. These would have the cathartic effect of eliminating the profits of Western oil companies, but would have little effect on the market, since the majority of oil supplies are today not controlled by Western oil companies.
Subsidies. The effect on consumers of spiraling oil prices could be reduced by cutting petroleum taxes (as recently proposed by Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton) or subsidizing gasoline prices directly. Such subsidies would increase rather than reduce consumption and would divert income from taxpayers (the ultimate providers of the subsidies) to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers. Terrible and counterproductive idea.
Rationing. Britain did this at the time of the Suez crisis in 1956, when overall rationing was still a recent memory. Its initial psychological effect would be considerable and it might well prove politically appealing to a populist, economically illiterate president after January 2009. The principal gainers from such a measure would be the Mafia, who would find a new business in stolen and forged ration coupons.
Intensified corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, ethanol mandates and public transportation subsidies. These would be highly politically attractive to the left, and are thus probably quite likely. Their effect would be far too long term to change short-term price movements. Apart from increasing costs in the economy, they would result in tens of thousands of additional fatalities a year, as the feeble mini-cars took to America's roads.
Intensified drilling in Alaska and offshore US areas. The right-wing alternative to CAFE standards; equally ineffective in the short term but much more helpful long term. Would probably intensify the 2013 price collapse as the new sources came on stream.
Closing down the commodities exchanges. The speculators have already found the counter to this one; a new crude oil contract is opening for trading in Dubai. To close that down, we would need to revert to the invasion option.
In summary, a sharp rise in US and world interest rates is the best way to solve the problem of spiraling energy and commodity prices, which will probably not solve itself. If that doesn't work or is "politically impossible" it's time to prepare the 82nd Airborne for jungle warfare in the Orinoco Basin.
When I bought our home, I didn't even attempt to get a balloon rate - the best part of having a CPA as a father-in-law means free and sound financial advice. I secured a set-rate, low interest mortgage. By making double house payments each month, I have less than five years and the place is mine. Unfortunately, a lot of people who could not secure a low rate mortgage ended up getting suckered into balloon mortgages. Now the payments are out of control. Yes, the mortgage companies and a few banks were guilty of taking advantage of some people, but it was also the fault of people who wanted to "get by the easy way" when they should have put a little thought into it.
Hi minnesota
So glad to hear from you! It just stinks that it is generally over worsening conditions!
It's funny but remembering that the first time I responded to your Blog you were wondering where to vacation and I said stay local and enjoy what your beautiful State has to offer. If you live in the Twin Cities area there is so much there and a day away. It is a beautiful area. It is a beautiful State. Enjoy!
You know it is the speculating that is the reason for the rapid increases and it will get a lot worse the more concerned people get about keeping the prices down.
We are powerless to stop this. I won't get too serious on you but you are seeing every day why I said a while back hunker down and be prepared. I am! Stay in touch!
Karen
I don't think anything will turn around the elitests and the affluent. This will embolden them to take even more from us. They will not be affected by any of this negatively. Remember the two denied economies!
It is the already turning around lower clas whites. I understand older Americans in need of money are taking MacDonalds type jobs from teenagers who can no longer afford to drive the cars they are working for. This denied but purposely created mess is just beginning and will like 100% everything else Bush has screwed with soon get a lot worse!
Larry
Oil will never go down appreciably again. It will get a lot worse along with absolutely 100% everything! There will be no slowing this down. Wait until you see how bad it gets when Bush or Mccain attacks Iran.
Remember, when Bush was elecetd oil was $28 ber Barrel. This is the end Capitalist system. American Capitalism run Amok. Oil interests and Bush will not be happy until they can enrich the industry, drill in AnWR and evrywhere possible, while oil continues to go up and they lie as to why and say not you are going to have to give us this!
They know we and Congress are powerless and this will not stop i blame it all on Bush and the mindset or mindlessness he ushered in.
Robert
You are lucky! I feel for the millions that got caught up in the exhilliaration of the times. Many fell for the teaser rates as they were told and felt things would work out.
You are lucky to have had a built in adviser. Let's hope you continue doing the right thing and are able to make double payments. 5 years is a long time under these just beginning very negative conditions.
We are okay our house is paid for but I see no end to fuel, oil, and food prices. you have young kids Robert and I have Grandchildren but my thoughts are with you and the future of your children. Take Care!
I just had an 18 year old nephew move in over the weekend.
He's looking for a job and talking about joining the Army.
I pointed out that he'll probably be in for at least 12 years, if he lives that long. Or if loses his arms or legs he might get out sooner.
My wife asked me to shut up, she couldn't stand to hear it.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot going for him, except his willingness to work. He's competing with a lot our guest workers from the South, in the current job market.
Geezuz Wease!
Can I ever sympathize with you, your wife, and your nephew! Does youre nephew have a diploma? That limits his chances to get killed. You probably know but I raised my 3 oldest sons and the youngest wanted to get away with murder so stayed with his Mother.
He never got his Diploma and thanks to his selfish Mother has no talents or options. He is working on his GED. The brother who is in Iraq took him to the Army recruiter and he wants to be a combat engineer but has to improve his math skills.
Anyway it is pretty screwed up that some of our kids look to dying as a way of living. Marines will only take a Diploma but the army will take a GED especially for canon fodder. With PTSD up 50%, the economy worsening daily, and the promise of a forever war, you have to be very concerned for these kids and their future. Sadly as you know that is barely scratching the surface.
I believe that he did finish High School.
He wants to join the Airborne Rangers. I don't think they'll take him though.
Even though he finished High School, he isn't very bright and everything has to be explained to him or written down for him.
He uses the, "I'm a country boy excuse". I took great care yesterday in teaching him how to use the local trains. He still got lost, even though at every stop I'd quiz him on where we just where and what train we just got off of.
Yesterday, when he was going to get off and take a different train than the one I'm on, I kept explaining, "Take the next train on this side of the track. Don't go to the other side." After he got off, I saw him chasing after a train on the other side of the track as it was pulling out.
If you've got any advice Jim, I'm listening.
Jim, I guess I'll change my view if we don't bomb Iran in the next two years.
Right now, in my view, Olmert and Bush are planning a huge offensive in the Middle East. They'll force the next Congress to institute a draft, by pushing our soldiers into a firefight where they take heavy losses. As I see it, this is the only way they'll be able to gain short lived public support for payback.
Then with the Persian Gulf afire, China and Russia will be pouring supplies into the ME, while our Air Force is dealing with fuel shortages.
We'll have to make up for this by putting more boots on the ground.
The death toll will go up and our boys will be stop-lossed again as their tour lengths are extended.
I don't believe in this war. I don't want to see any of my family members maimed or wounded just to give Bush something to grin, dance and laugh about.
You could say that I have strong feelings about this.
Wease
You have to wonder about some kids and how they even get through School. Your nephew, hmm I'll shut up. You do have to take a test to see what they will even let you do. Sadly I can see Airborne as qualifications are physical not mental. Unless he is gifted physically big time and mentally forget about the Rangers and have a back up guarantee or they make you whatever they need at the time.
No need to shut up Jim. It's not just your intelligence, but also your candor that I respect.
My other nephew that is the same age, I would worry about less. He's officer material if he can find a way to get through college. I don't think though that he has any interest in joining up. He's sharp as a tack and sees the bigger picture.
But then I didn't know that my oldest nephew was going until he had already been shipped out.
If we had a real leader for President and we weren't fighting Vietnam 2.0 the Director's Cut, I wouldn't try to talk him out of joining up. I think the military could be good for him.
If he decides that he must join up, I may see what I can do to steer him a bit. But I won't try to stop him. He's 18, he needs to make his own decisions.
I believe I'm probably covering much of the same ground that you've already thought over with your own boys.
Shit Wease
Blogger just blew away my comment. See what I remember. You know I have strong feelings about this too and the attack is imminent by Bush or McCain. Did I send you this on the upcoming attack on Iran
They are adults you can't tell them what to do. You can only suggest. Man I suggested EOD to one of my sons and chided him to stick it out. Now he's a mad man. Seems to me like he has PTSD and a death wish. I won't dwell on it but i told him to go in like his brother but that was pre Forever War Bush.
Wease
You, I have brought this up before but our rapidly declining economy at election time makes me think it is on purpose to take control of us and to get more recruits for these growing wars. As this continues I don't know if a draft will do the trick. What a mess!
I hadn't seen that article before Jim.
The rhetoric keeps heating up and I see no evidence at all that Bush won't call an attack on Iran.
As we learned in the year leading up to the Iraq war, everything the White House says, is most probably a lie.
And now Israeli sources tell us that Bush will call for an attack.
And Israel opens negotiations with Syria, likely to offer appeasements and gain assurances that they will not interfere with the war. The fact that Turkey is mediating, suggests that this is a very important summit. If it didn't matter, then Condeleeza Bush would go, so she could shop for shoes there.
As Turkish troops are in Iraq now, perhaps Bush intends to let them do some of the warkeeping, so that he can concentrate on the Iraq/Iran border?
Some other folks have mentioned to me that our declining economy will make the draft unnecessary.
I think it is more likely that it will serve to postpone the draft.
When we hit Iran, we'll take a large portion of the world's oil off line.
The whole world will freak. Our own military will face fuel shortages.
To make up for the loss of air power, we will have to put a lot more boots on the ground. As the war spreads across the Middle East and into Africa, we'll need a lot more boots.
We're going to keep going until we create our own Adrianople. We are an expanding empire that is running out of resources. We will exhaust ourselves. We are repeating history.
Wease
You could be right about turkey. Being halfway in the middle east and Europe and wanting UN membership this would do it. A reward you know. The plan to attack evolved in 1996 they just needed the right mindless idiot to push it through.
I absolutely expect Bush to appear forced to attack or for McCain to do it if they think they can sneak him in. I always expected it to be to come to Israel's rescue if instigation to war with Iran failed.
I told my son in Iraq to be prepared because he will be there. Oh what a tangled web we weave!Another sons plane leaves today or tomorrow to a location in the middle east is all he could say. Oh man!
Wease
Of course I agree with you! Bush has something up his sleeve with fuel. I alwaqys thought it was the largest oil reserve in the entire worl, our shale oil that he ordered industry to quickly develop a plan to economically capture it.
I have gotten Emails asking if I wanted to invest in it. T Boone pickens said $5 at the pump would do it. We are almost there. Absolutely 100% everything is happening all at once and at the perfect time for Bush to take control of this facade.
You know, filling up the reserves at $10 per gallon is no coincidence at this time. Wasn't it nice of the ass hole to stop filling the reserves. With a 2 month supply he will attack. ???
Ahh, the reserves... I hadn't given that angle much thought.
Shale Oil is just another subsidy sham. It still takes more oil to make oil from shale, than it returns. The dollar amount doesn't change the BTUs.
Remember when the common wisdom was that at $14 a barrel, the oil industry would go out of business because alternative energy would take over?
When gasoline prices hit $5/gal, they'll just redraw that line in the sand $7/gal.
T. Boone speaks a lot of truth and at the same time, he's not above lying to make money. Now he's selling natural gas and ads are all over the airwaves in Texas. Every hour or so, there's a TV ad bragging about how abundant and clean natural gas and coal is.
When a stock goes mainstream and all the critics are praising it, then it's time to sell. Clearly this suggests that Natural Gas and coal are about to crash in the US.
The only good reason to spend all that money on television advertising is to drive up stock prices so that the insiders can get out at a profit. It's not like people will choose not to use energy if they don't see an ad for it on television.
Sound reason Wease! When all is said and done this is all largely driven by wealthy speculators. I would accuse them for driving up all commodities. We now have 2 economies and they only dare about our because it feeds theirs.
I can't say I was following the price of oil when it was $14 but I do know it was only $28 before Bush got in and started screwing around!
Wease
I almost forgot. You're right about Pickens. I saw him on TV pushing his wind turbine farm or something.
Post a Comment