hey, why stop there? nothing else is, and being rich, as the Goldmans and the Sachs are, it doesn't phase them..... why stop there? after all, someone is green lighting these prices, and the Oil Administration is fully involved....
Once they get plug-in hybrids in production this problem will be solved. I read a piece in the national geographic a few months ago that compared the cost of various fuels and if we could plug our cars in we would be paying the equivalent of $0.6c a gallon on our utility bill. The best part is that most people would be plugging in at night when use of the grid is low anyway so it wouldn't necessitate an immediate build out of power infrastructure (more than we already need to meet peak times). The technology to do this has been there since the EV1 and it is ashame that the US due to policy reasons has been so slow to make the shift in to more economical and ecological vehicles. I know some people will object to this linkage but I think we owe it to the kids who have died fighting in Iraq to make a faster transition to a less oil dependent society.
$5 per gallon gas will ensure a deep and long economic contraction in the US; $10 will ensure a near depression. Anyone who thinks an economy built on an interstate highway system, an average 37 minute commute (by car) to work, suburbia with larger homes and yards, and the all-American shopping mall (and powercenter with big box stores such as Target, Best Buy, Costco) - can survive without taking serious fundamental damage with gasoline prices 300% higher than they were 3 years ago, is clinically insane. Notice that I didn't even mention the knock on effects of the inflation caused in other areas as heating costs, shipping costs, etc. skyrocket, too. Comparisons to prices paid in Europe are irrational - most people there don't need a car, and the ones that they do drive are much more efficient, used far less frequently, at shorter distances, DESPITE the amazingly efficient mass transit available in nearly every modern European capital. The fact that you're seeing populism in full force and effect in the Congress and Senate about surging fuel costs is a red flag to anyone bullish on crude oil from this point forth (not to mention that there is no supply/demand imbalance; we're awash in crude). And now the airlines, trucking, restaurant, hotel, consumer retail, automotive and other industries are pressuring law makers, too. The House went so far as to sponsor a bill labeling OPEC a Cartel and singleing it out for Anti-Trust reciprocities (it's largely symbolic, as OPEC is immune from U.S. sanctions). This tells you the fevered pitch at which politicians are decrying 'manipulation,' 'rigging,' and 'price-fixing.' You don't have to agree with intervention of the oil markets. It will happen nonetheless. Closing the Enron Loophole was Act 1, and cutting off further builds to the SPR was Act 2, of many Acts to come.
Hazardous as relying upon an Elliott Wave interpretation is.... the market's optimism in the face of significant apparent difficulties smacks of "5th Wave" stuff. That is, "overbelief".... It COULD be that the low in March was the 4th, and now the market is working the "final leg up" from the 2003 low.
2 (two) outstanding points, that I have been argueing and proposing quite frequently and often, as well as other more realistic and practical important people like former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich.... We Americans drive more and longer than any other populace, including Austrailans.... Our domestic backbones are built upon highways and interstate commerce. Our domestic policies geared toward exports are intertwined with usage of trucks, intermodal transport hubs and shipping centers / ports on our coasts. Also, the stupidity of so many in proposing the insane notion that we in the states should be happy that our prices remain lower than in Europe are as intelligent as those who say that slavery was good, benevolent and took care of housing and health costs of their capitves. In Econmics, Sociology and History, one can look back with wild abandon and irresponsible conclusions being drawn that have nothing to do with intent, reality, factual statements or otherwise, but seem like good arguements being made. Also, for the very same reasons as stated above, the lies being told of the effect of China, India, Brazil (net exporter), Russia coming online with gasoline demand as justifcation for these obviously manipulated oil and oil product prices is just as lame. These countries for the most part (recent article both in NY Times and WSJ regarding recognized commute and distances driven by their citizenry) do not have long distances to drive, irrespective of so many new cars, if they really are being put in service, causing all this excess demand. The ultimate insiders, Saudi Arabia must know and they keep saying don't blame us, its you ".....ish"Americans driving up the prices.... wonder whom they were cursing at?, hmmmmm there's a horrible backlash coming over these wild abuses being done under this supply side idiocy of the Bush II economy....and the world is paying the price, right along with us pitiful americans
maybe, I was actually wondering the same... but I do know this... I'm short oil yesterday and today and I'll be shorting the market on the next lower low. Some of the R:R on stocks in this sector is too good to be true. B p.s. Christ, from all the sucking and blowing that went on today on CNBC, you'd think they were long oil with some size...
there are several ways out of this situation. both will involve inflation. the only reason inflation was in check was because we outsourced a good portion of our manufactured goods. this in turn stimulated many foreign nations that know use oil for there energy needs. now we have to make some serious choices to bring our current account deficit back to balance. and this will happen one way or another. you can lift restrictions to drilling for oil off the us coast. but this would probably only fix part of the problem. or you could put tariffs on the nations that we import goods from and that should reduce there oil usage. or we can take the least intrusive option, and i mean intrusive in the market sense, and just pump money into our economy until it all balances out. which is pretty much what japan has done and had some success with.