Jack & Jill Politics

Could part of the reason be that the price of oil is dropping because the speculators who were bidding up the price of oil can't get credit now? They can't bid without credit.

Just a thought. We saw $1.61 here outside of Atlanta today.

Teacher here. I filled up last night for $1.65 a gal., though I've seen it as low as $1.58.

I think that the price per barrel is grossly underpriced to give a boost to W's legacy. I think that if the price of oil would have naturally slid this low, many groups (Saudi's) would have stopped production until the price went back up. They have said so publically, as recently as when W went over there and asked them to increase production and they said no.

The oil companies know that our tax dollars have enabled them to siphon oil out Iraqi soil practically for free. Our gov is providing military protection of the rigs & pipeline, and our gov is also paying them for our envasion. The last I heard, the Iraqi gov had billions in an american bank. O was saying that they need to start paying to rebuild/repair their country. No one has ever given the impression that they made these billions from american oil companies.

Even while gas is down, at least until Jan. 21, 2009, I haven't noticed a dip in the price of other patroleum based products. No drop in the prices if gum, crayons, Afro sheen or tires. I also think food is still very high.

I hope everyone is well. I've been working very hard. I'm also feeling disillusioned about O recycling Clinton staffers. I think this is their payback/Quid Pro Quo for endorsing him. I don't like it. I'm going to read what everyone else has to say now.

Why is gas so "cheap" right now?

I think it's because Big Oil is throwing the Big 3 a bone. The auto industry is in trouble, and the problem is all the trucks and SUVs that they can't get rid of. What better way to get Americans buying them again, than to offer them cheap gas?

I guess they figure that we dumb Americans will realize that the gas hike was just temporary, and we'll dutifully regain our appetites for Tahoes and Suburbans.

See, the last thing that Big Oil wants are Americans who are looking for automobile and fossil fuel alternatives. So what better way to keep us distracted on the shiny things, than by lowering our gas prices.

Say it again,RonnieB!

It's my opinion that it was the election of Barack Obama that has caused SOME things to get back to some sort of "normalcy", whatever that is. Well at least in the area of oil. I truly believe that most of the world has rejoiced at his election and at the notion of a changing of the guard as Bush heads on out of office. And although we see many other fiascos occurring such as the auto industry falling apart before our eyes and other companies steadily going under, I do believe that by the time Obama completes his first year in office, some of our economic woes will subside and we will see gas, along with other prices begin to drop and we can get back to our pre-Bush lives, the way we existed before 9/11, in America.

We have gas at $2.05 a gallon here in Alexandria and plummeting.

I think we've been had again. Someone was price goughing and now they know a new POTUS is coming in, they don't want to be investigated for price goughing and possible exposure like ENRON.

I was telling a friend yesterday --Someone needs to be arrested for the highway robbery committed against the public -- $4 in the summer, $1.87 now! Nothing has changed all that much in demand. We got robbed-PERIOD.

Bush made sure his oil buddies got fat paid. And now, his buddies will no longer have his dumb ass to protect them in the White House and Congress, so hamstring Obama and kneecap his ability to discuss energy issues.

Thank God, Waxman now Chairs that Energy Committee - don't think for a minute he will let this go. He will now be able to demand investigations into the fact that gas prices have plummeted 80% since Labor Day.

WE GOT TOOK...AGAIN.

Co-sign, but OPEC has been meeting on this issue; they ain't getting paid, so look for those gas prices to inch up again.

The gas is cheap now so that we can go out and buy gifts for our loved ones...oh, wait-a-minute, folks don't have credit to buy gifts this year. People are hoarding cash like armageddon is on the horizon.

Next Friday is going to be very telling...Barack is rolling out his Economic Team on Monday to give people confidence to go out and buy on "Black Friday."

A week from next Monday, we will see how deep this recession is going to be.

Is it me, or does it seem strange that under the entire eight years of the Bush Cartel, we have paid outrageous prices for everything under the sun, and now that he's leaving, with the exception of food, the prices are starting to drop? I can actually afford to fill up my tank twice, instead of every two weeks (yeah, I have a fuel-efficient car, but you try keeping a tank filled when gas was popping at 3.50 a gallon).

That dog's not hunting.

That's republican orthodoxy...Lower taxes for the rich and higher prices for the Middle-to-lower-classes.

Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money___

May Barack be the "Robin-Hood" President...that should be his Secret Service Code Name, "Robin Hood."

Ronnie Suggested Credit Amnesty Programs now that white people are showing up with Bad Credit, too.

Just like anything else, changes get demanded when it happens to White People; like the rest of us do not matter.

please dont be racist, thats so cliche. irresponsable people have bad credit.

you're late to the party. about three weeks late. but that's what trolls do.

Its 2.26 in NY! I was asking myself the same question!

And plane tickets are plummeting, too.

Have you checked them out lately? Of course, tickets for the Inauguration may be just about gone, but one can get on a plane these days without cashing out the bank account.

Glad I didn't buy oil at a prepaid price. I had a feeling this would happen.

People who were bamboozled should get their oil at market rates for the winter no matter what their contract price is.

Talk about being robbed.

The American public was duped into believing in an oil shortage by right wing talk show host who have as much knowledge on the subject as a third grader.The market was artificially driven up by rouge speculators and investors.Now the market is crashing down like the housing bubble oil will be like air or water.Now where is Micheal Steele and the GOP saying drill baby drill!And other uneducated nonsense.

I hope that it continues to drop and we can finally begin to work on moving toward a green economy

The only reason there was serious discussion of a green economy was because of the high prices. I actually don't want prices to continue their fall b/c eventually everyone will go back to business as usual. I don't want it to go back to the ridiculous price of $4/gal but I think somewhere between $2.00 - $2.50 will keep "the development of alternative fuels" at the forefront of the discussion.

I hope so too Tariq. I don't want complacency to set in due to lower gas prices and we abandon goals for a greener economy.

A green economy is needed for climate change, new innovation and job creation.

I lived in Italy for 3 years and the rail system throughout western Europe makes our systems look so antiquated and dysfunctional. Also, you never see gas guzzlers on the road due to high gas prices. Europeans love their public transportation, bicycles, mopeds, Smartcars, and walking.

You're right, Monie. When I spent the summer in Oxford, I saw no vehicle bigger than a Mini-Cooper and SUVs are pretty much outlawed over there. Everyone either took public transportation (which makes ours look dysfunctional for no reason), bikes were all over the city and I dropped four pounds without making changes in my diet because I was hauling ass everywhere and my dorm room was on the top floor of a three story building with NO ELEVATOR.

If a green economy gives me those benefits, sign me up.

I think our government spends like $1 for mass transportation (trains, etc) for every $30 on roads and bridges.

One thing that has traditionally held us back in improving our rail system is the fact that our country is so vast, whereas European countries are much smaller (all of UK is as big as Oregon)

There are large regions of the country without adequate mass transportation and urban sprawl is HORRIBLE. Memphis, TN, for example, is geographically as big as New York City with less than 1/10th the population. The South and the Mid-West would need massive cultural change to bring them along. I hope that Obama can lead on this issue

True. I have to say, one area that I lived in would have massive deadlock during rush hour traffic, but for the longest time, citizens opposed light-rail.

And it was largely regarded that the reason for the opposition was that most people in the suburbs were opposed to having certain populations (read: black and poor) being able to travel into their neighborhoods through more efficient means---instead of using complicated and slow city-bus transportation. The measure finally passed for light-rail though.

Monie, same here in Minnesota. I live in the suburbs, and the outcry from folks here was thunderous! They are suffering from N.I.M.BY. Syndrome (Not In My Backyard) When Jessie Ventura was Governor, the Northside Minneapolis finally got light -rail that runs to the St. Paul/Minneapols Airport.

The lowest price for as I've seen is $1.79. We have definitely been screwed. BUSH BEGONE!!!

Memphis similarly had people lobbying for a light rail, but now the city is so sprawling that it is all but impossible to do it. There still is no light rail and none is in sight.

Here in Northern Virginia, (where BTW, gas is as low as $1.69) we need more metro lines for the train

I love to ride the subway in DC. It is so clean and quiet, unlike the "L" in Chicago, that you could go deaf on. I love the rail system in Europe. I think the American public would strongly support and patronize a high speed rail system, especially as an alternative to the hassle of flying. Let some of the car companies retool and build them. We need to develop more pedestrian opportunities in some of our cities (like Houston).

Los Angeles could definately use a better light rail than the one they have now. It only runs to certain parts of inner-city LA and nothing goes past Carson to the 'burbs, which makes me wonder why they even have light rail with such limited service.

I love the DC Metro system as well and BART in the San Francisco Bay Area could take a few lessons from DC Metro (like running later on the weekends so people getting their party on won't get behind the wheel under the influence because they'll be on public transportation).

The way I learned my way around DC was on the Metro. When I first started coming here on business, I didn't go to too many places that couldn't be accessed from the Metro. So when I started driving here, it was much easier to learn shortcuts as a result.

It has very little to do with oil prices and everything to do with domestic demand; American oil refineries currently operate at about max capacity (very recently going up a bit with some damaged refineries coming back online). Domestic supply is fixed. Demand is not very flexible, so there needs to be a huge shift in price to get demand to drop accordingly to deal with this limited supply. Now that demand is lowering in response to economic troubles (examples of this all over the place -- individuals curtailing driving and changing habit in response to high gas prices, industrial use dropping b/c of decreased consumer demand for just about everything, cities decreasing public transit to make budgets, etc) the price is coming back down to earth. You should never expect the domestic price of gasoline to mirror the price of oil on the global market.

Basically, small changes in demand affect a big change in gasoline prices... and this recession is ushering in a pretty large drop in demand on top of the drop in demand that'd already been catalyzed by the high gas prices of the past couple years. That's why we're seeing gas prices at $50/bl oil that we saw when oil was cheaper 5 years ago.

And don't be surprised when it gets cheaper. Go check out the futures prices on gasoline. Screw my carbon footprint it's time for a road trip.

Screw my carbon footprint it's time for a road trip.

::

Which is precisely the attitude that fuels addiction to oil and then nothing changes.

When the global economy crashes, so does the price of a barrel of oil.

It's called deflation.

That said, the price of gasoline is manipulated by speculation and taxes. Congress closed an Enron loophole quietly over the summer, so there's less speculation to falsely inflate the price.

In the Netherlands, for instance, the price of gas remains high because the government simply increases the taxes per gallon in order to keep the overall price more or less level so people still conserve. If we were more "socialist," we'd do the same. All the extra taxes goes into public works projects.

Imagine that.

Exactly.

But the outrageous gas prices that resulted from greed and manipulation have also helped ruin and fuck over other industries also in the process:

automobile industry: sales of gas guzzlers and all cars alike have plummetted

retail sales suffer because people have to use their funds for essentials primarily, which included supplying their cars for gas to go to work.

hospitality industries have suffered because people are not eating out and have scaled back on vacations due to increased airline prices and gas needed to travel

food prices and other goods have skyrocketed due to the increase of fueling costs on shipper's behalf.

When Bush took office, oil traded for $25/ a barrel. Slowly but surely, the prices began to rise----but this past summer those prices went beyond a threshold that most Americans could not tolerate anymore. And when we cut back, it set off a domino effect.

Now oil comapanies look like fuckin idiots because they helped push us over a ledge that was already doomed by Wall Street and government incompetence.

hospitality industries have suffered because people are not eating out and have scaled back on vacations due to increased airline prices and gas needed to travel.

::

I own a B&B in Maine and at the beginning of the year, braced myself for poor business.

In six years, this was far and away the busiest. And with three big holiday parties to cater, it's going to be so through December.

How ironic.

That is so great Craig...I am so happy for you. A lot of others haven't been as fortunate...evidently the universe is being good to you, Keep up the good work ;)

If I am ever in Maine, I'll have to check it out.

We are blessed.

Next year, as food prices continue to sour, we are going to expand our crop production and give away fresh vegetables to those who need them the most. I'm even thinking about establishing a community garden so folks without land can come grow and everybody can share farming/gardening trick for better yields.

Craig, where is your B & B? I want an excuse to visit Maine, and your B & B gives me one. LOL

OMG, Craig, it looks so beautiful and serene. This looks like the perfect getaway for a "girlfriends weekend." or a couples getaway, which I am desperately in need of.

Come on. We'd be happy to have you.

Thanks. I just might next year...I'm in the PNW now but I may be moving back East in the next new months.

I will spread the word to my girlfriends though.

Check out this community garden site from Burlington, VT.
http://www.burlingtongardens.org/virtual.htm

Splendid. YOU ARE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER...I love it...Best wishes!!!

Thr price per barrel is about $50 today vs the $100+ it was trading at for several months. The gas pump prices didn't drop as fast as the price per barrel but deflation is definitely a concern. Too bad food prices aren't dropping also.

rikyrah: For a "hot minute" - - the Price Manipulators/gougers - - STOPPED MANIPULATING!

That's as far as my "economics" takes me. :>) :>) Sorry. :>(

the oil companies know that now that we have a dem in offfice that the jig is up. They are trying to stay off the legislative radar.

Too late.

While Dingell was Chairing the Energy Committee, the oil industries had a chance to slink away. Now that Waxman is chairing this committee, don't tell me he's not going to be subpeaoning Oil industry CEOs and demanding they explain their asses for price goughing during most of Bush's Administration, and dropping prices like it's hot now that a Democrat got the White House.

Me too! Its $1.89 here. What the heck has so drastically changed? It hasn't been this cheap in years.

This is why I think the whole oil industry is just corrupt. When prices were through the roof, people were finally seriously talking about energy alternatives. Obama got elected, and he also seems serious about it. What is the best way to make it difficult for him to make any progress in that area? Make the gas prices low.

I found $1.83 today.....and in Sept when we had the "shortage" I was forced to pay $4.79

Kat: Good point! :>) I was also thinking that this low price is a way of "diverting President-Elect Obama's ATTENTION [and action (and wrath)] AWAY FROM THEM - for a "HOT MINUTE!"

BUT, HE KNOWS!! :>)