- Joined
- Mar 11, 2006
- Messages
- 96,116
- Reaction score
- 33,462
- Location
- SE Virginia
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Okay Obama, get busy fixing this.Jan 11, 3:21 PM (ET)
By MARK WILLIAMS
Gasoline prices on Monday continued their push toward $3 per gallon. The only question now is when?
Prices have been jumping on the back of a strong oil market where the cost for a barrel has spiked 20 percent in the past month on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Skyrocketing gasoline prices couldn't come at a worse time for motorists, who will see heating bills jump after the worst cold spell in years.
Oil prices are now about three times what they were a year ago.
"There is a long history of tripled oil prices causing consternation among consumers," Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover said in a report Monday. "We are not there, yet, but gasoline prices at more than $3.00 is certainly an unwelcome sign of consumer distress."
Prices rose 1.4 cents overnight to $2.749 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices have climbed 8.4 cents a gallon in the past week and are 95.5 cents higher than a year ago.
Prices almost always tick up toward the spring as more people begin to drive and refiners switch over to cleaner burning fuels as required by law.
Aren't you liberal not? But I say drill baby drill.Aren't you conservatives supposed to be in favor of a free market?
Aren't you liberal not? But I say drill baby drill.
Why do we need to drill?
Aren't you conservatives supposed to be in favor of a free market?
Drill baby drill. But how do we get them to drill more when that would drive prices down lowering their profits? The government should force the oil companies to drill more to keep prices artificially low.
They can't just drill they also have to build refineries to refine the increased oil.
Drill it and they will come.
Refineries are only at 85%(or less) capacity right now.
U.S. Refinery Utilization and Capacity
What do you expect him to do? Price controls? Jimmy Carter already tried that; the results were not impressive.
What did the liberals expect Bush to do when it happened to him? The liberals were screaming then, now the silence is deafening.
:doh
No, we weren't!
Aren't you liberal not? But I say drill baby drill.
What did the liberals expect Bush to do when it happened to him? The liberals were screaming then, now the silence is deafening.
Regardless of what you think "the liberals" (whoever that is) expected Bush to do, the fact is that presidents can't control the price of gasoline...and any attempt to do so will create shortages and end in disaster, as it did when Carter was president.
While it's true they can't control the price, they can nonetheless create enough uncertainty in the market to worry investors, who inevitably pull their money out of the stocks and sink it into stable commodities like gold, silver, platinum, yes--oil. The recent demand for these commodities has been driving the price up and I would expect this to continue.
pendulum_jaw said:If inflation kicks in hard in the next couple of years, I wouldn't be surprised to see the current administration implementing price controls on necessities.
but in general, the president has very little ability to create much uncertainty in the stock market.
And did I misunderstand you, or did you describe oil as a "stable commodity"?
I would. Almost no economist in the world would advise them to do that.
What a ridiculous statement--you won't find an economist on the planet who agrees with you.
pendulum_jaw said:Investors buy up oil stocks in uncertain economic conditions.
pendulum_jaw said:There's ample evidence on the record that the current administration understands little about economics.
pendulum_jaw said:Plus when politicians implement price controls, it's not for economic reasons, it's to score political points.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?