Where Is The Gas Price Heading?

[kdog4130]

Ride your bike to work........two days a week, is all it takes. I have been amazed at the amount of people streaming into my shop complaining about Gas prices. It is absolutely amazing. The Oil Executives certainly practice the "push till' they squeak" method. People are finally getting pissed off enough to do somthing about it now.

[92se-r]

I'm not referring to just demand. One of the main reasons oil is so pricey is because oil is traded in USD. When you devalue the USD, OPEC wants more USD/barrel.

Originally Posted by lmnop

Why wouldn't oil prices stay high? You are only referring to the demand side of the equation, what about supply? It is no secret that there is less and less of this stuff. That which is there is harder and harder to get to.

Oil is not the sole reason it dropped today. The weakness in unemployment demonstrated that we are not going to see a turnaround in the economy anytime soon. Wall St. likes to think of themselves as a leading indicator, that's why we hit 13k again recently. Everyone was starting to think the economy would turn around at the end of this year. Turns out they were wrong.

Originally Posted by KeepsWhatHappens

OK two thoughts:

--- First of all not only is the price of fuel draining our wallets, but it is killing our 401ks and investments as well! Today the dow fell 395 points, the biggest one-day point loss in 15 months due to crude prices biggest one-day jump and a poor jobs report.

--- Even if the price of crude fell, and the oil companies were allowed to drill 100s of oilwells off the coast and in ANWR, I doubt the price of gas would come down much, if at all. They know we have no choice but to buy fuel and they have us by the short and curlies.

[lmnop]

Originally Posted by 92se-r

I'm not referring to just demand. One of the main reasons oil is so pricey is because oil is traded in USD. When you devalue the USD, OPEC wants more USD/barrel.

Understood. However, I'm talking about the long term trend of the price for a barrel of oil. I mean, think about the overall trend in gas prices even before the economic downturn. I'm 34, and can remember when I was eighteen or nineteen still being able to buy a gallon of gas (on occasion) for $0.99. This isn't just inflation here at work.

I too am in a way pleased that this has caused people to rethink there driving habits and perhaps dust off the bike.

[ericfoltz]

Originally Posted by Evil Chocula

Dot com companies are going to keep going up too .... and real estate... and limited partnerships.... tulips (yes, there was a tulip bubble!).

Yes, but none of those have quite the impact on the overall economy that fuel/energy costs do.

The drop in the DOW came right after they announced that 49,000 jobs were lost last month.

[foofighter]

on the flip side of our 401k taking a hit, you have to think it's also a great time to buy then...so unless you plan to retire in the near future this will only add to your buying power

anyone had the foresight to buy energy mutual funds?

[EMrider]

For the record, oil companies don't control the price of oil. They are price takers, not price setters.

[Elisheva]

Several thoughts/comments:

Not too long ago my relatives in Europe said, "Just wait...you'll be paying $6 at the pump." It's coming. We will be.

Forget about national security, radical islamists, terrorists detonating nuclear bombs in our country, Osama Bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbos (Hezbollah) or the quagmire in the middle east. If we keep going in the direction we're going in, we will have an economic crisis that may be irrepairable. We will do ourselves in.

Are we a Superpower? We are super-in-debt. As a nation, we are addicted to spending far beyond our ability to afford it. The saddest part is we did it to ourselves.

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by Elisheva

Several thoughts/comments:

Not too long ago my relatives in Europe said, "Just wait...you'll be paying $6 at the pump." It's coming. We will be.

Forget about national security, radical islamists, terrorists detonating nuclear bombs in our country, Osama Bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbos (Hezbollah) or the quagmire in the middle east. If we keep going in the direction we're going in, we will have an economic crisis that may be irrepairable.

Are we a Superpower? We are super-in-debt. As a nation, we are addicted to spending far beyond our ability to afford it. The saddest part is we did it to ourselves.

OK OK, I'll sell one of my bikes. Anybody want a cruiser?

I am kidding of corse. She is right! We all spend to much money. An as soon as I get my new breaks, that's it! Really!

[Pain Freak]

Cars were the number one vehicle in sales this year for the first time in 16 years.

I think we need this kind of shake up. People will start to use public transportation and places will become more centralized. Riding a bike to the store/post office/library etc, will finally make sense. But it'll take many years for it to come around. Hell, we might even have real neighborhoods again.

It's 33 miles to my work from my front door and I've rode it a few times. I trally like the ride for the most part, but there are a few sections I have to literally get off and walk because cars are driving within inches of the curb. My company pays me to keep a car. We get a car allowance (it's more then enough for a car payment), but in that regard my boss doesn't like for me not to have access to a vehicle, so I have to leave my car at work if I want to ride and I just don't like to leave my car there. I'm still thinking of doing it though.

[gleeke]

I'm in the oil business here in the North East....and if prices continue to climb like they are..people freeze and die next winter. My profit margins have gone from 30% down to right above 10%. A delivery of 150gals tmo will be $660..for some people that's a weeks pays...Crazy. I'm forced to change the way I do business w people with whom my family has done business w for 30+ years. The perks that they used to enjoy are now going to go away. It sucks because we pride ourselves on our "family" way of doing business and now we have to adopt a more corporate approach. I'll be riding my bike to work 4days a week shortly. If my son's daycare was along a safer biking route, I'd go pick him up w the bike and trailer.

Prices will decrease. The Techstock bubble blew up and so will this raping of the commodities market. These increase are not even based on real gallons all paper gallons. Investor driven BS....but w an election looming something will change.

Until things change..share a ride, ride your bike or use public transportation anything but drive your car.

[springrubber]

Fill up your tanks tonight!! Gas is expected to jump 10 to 20 cents this Saturday as speculated on CNN. Just forwarding 2nd hand info. Don't hate!

[supralight]

i believe it! thanks for the heads up!

[art23rockpile]

As the government seems to have no intention of bringing the oil companies to account for their obvious manipulation of the market, it's safe to say that prices for petroleum products will keep rising. They have no problem with ruining the economy, just as long as they're making money.

[92se-r]

Just curious. When you were 18 and 19, how much did houses cost? How much did cars cost? Inflation is a bitch my friend, more so than one thinks.

I agree though. A part of me wonders when we will run out of oil. However, there are huge reserves of oil all over the world. It just matters hwo much effort and cost it takes to get the oil. For example, I read a Popular Science article on how it wasn't cost effective to get oil from the oil sands until $XX/barrel. That's why you see more offshore drilling now. When oil was $10/barrel, it wasn't cost effective to go drill offshore or get oil in Siberia. Now that it is more than 10 times that much, it may only cost $50/barrel to go after these alternative oil fields. IMO, we need to ultimately be at 100% nuclear powered in the US with electric cars powered by these super capacitors. Then we can just shoot our nuclear wasted into another galaxy for some aliens to deal with. Hybrids are not the answer and are a waste of money IMO.

Originally Posted by lmnop

Understood. However, I'm talking about the long term trend of the price for a barrel of oil. I mean, think about the overall trend in gas prices even before the economic downturn. I'm 34, and can remember when I was eighteen or nineteen still being able to buy a gallon of gas (on occasion) for $0.99. This isn't just inflation here at work.

I too am in a way pleased that this has caused people to rethink there driving habits and perhaps dust off the bike.

[EMrider]

Originally Posted by art23rockpile

As the government seems to have no intention of bringing the oil companies to account for their obvious manipulation of the market, it's safe to say that prices for petroleum products will keep rising. They have no problem with ruining the economy, just as long as they're making money.

Why do you believe this, and what exactly would you have the government do?

Oil companies and producing countries don't control the price of oil. The market is global and far too big to be manipulated by any oligopolistic activity. This is good old supply and demand, probably compounded recently by speculation from commodity investors (aka, the pension fund assets of many STR members, by the way).

[ericfoltz]

I don't feel so bad now.

UK - $8.56
France - $8.00
Spain - $7.04

per gallon

[lmnop]

Originally Posted by 92se-r

IMO, we need to ultimately be at 100% nuclear powered in the US with electric cars powered by these super capacitors. Then we can just shoot our nuclear wasted into another galaxy for some aliens to deal with. Hybrids are not the answer and are a waste of money IMO.

Now here is something I can get behind, short of shooting our nuclear waste into space. Nuclear energy is the way to go. It is a proven technology, with quality controls in place to make sure another Three Mile Island doesn't happen. Even the Greenies are changing their minds on this.