Gas to go to $3/gal by Labor Day. The end is near.

[Zeke]

Shell is demolishing a refinery in CA and the price of gas is predicted to go up and up. The real problem with this is the inflationary cycle. This 50 % increase in the cost of fuel inside of one year will most certainly topple what economy we have.

Alan Greenspan won't be able to hold the flood gates on this one. Almost every business uses fuel and the cost of goods has to go up to compensate. This will result in some big time inflation.

Inflation, in turn will send interest rates up quickly. I'm not sure why this works, but it seems to go hand in hand. When the interest goes up, the housing boom crashes.

We're in for another big one and it's about time on the cycle. The last time the ***** hit the fan was '91. The only thing prolonging the economic doom is election year. We always have a decent economy in an election year.

My prediction: By this time in 2005 unemployment rates will reach highs only exceeded by the Great Depression. This general economic function is/will be exacerbated by the off shore job problem.

You better hope your payment books are getting pretty skinny and if you want to sell real estate, there can be no better time than now. And, if you don't have 6 months living expenses on hand in liquid assests, better start working on that.

The economy starts down today. Mark my words and we'll see what happens.

[vash]

forget the windows zeke. i am squirreling that away!

[pbs911]

Zeke, I hope your wrong, but I think you hit the nail on the head on this one.

[dd74]

Is now a good time to move to Sweden?

[speeder]

That's what I've been thinking, inflation up the wazoo. Everything depends on gas or diesel to get to the consumer.

There was an article in the paper last week about big rig operators parking their trucks already....., can't make a profit at current fuel prices.

[JonT]

Prices will correct themselves. Its called "demand destruction". Happens in natural gas industry as well. High prices decrease demand and supply/demand balances out and prices soften.

[dd74]

Yes - I'm not truly worried. I have a sort of "been there, done that" attitude about it.

All I know is it costs me as much to fill my Mountaineer as my 911.

Supposedly, adjusted for inflation, the prices now are lower than they were 20 yrs. ago. Thing is, 20 yrs. ago, I drove a Honda Accord...on regular gas...

[Aurel]

I don`t get it: so why did Bush invade Iraq ? Was not the plan to seize all their oil to keep the prices low ?

Aurel

[Zeke]

Originally posted by JonT
Prices will correct themselves. Its called "demand destruction". Happens in natural gas industry as well. High prices decrease demand and supply/demand balances out and prices soften.

Jon and dd, you're missing the point. Of course, this is nothing new. The "correction " will involve an economic turn down. How severe, no one knows. Each time we cycle through this, there are different factors present. With a spread sheet containing the variables, the prediction possibilities number in the 1000s.

However, in simple terms, the economy moves up or it moves down. It's going to move down, Milt is predicting. All I have postulated here is that the gas situation will impact interest rates and that the interest rate increase will cool off the real estate market. This is the beginning of a downward spiral.

If you only could visualize how much the national debt service costs the economy each day, you would wonder how the house of cards stands at all. Now figure that CA faces the same situation as a state and world economy. (No. 8 in the world, IIRC). Even my city of Long Beach is 100 million the hole.

In the simplest of all terms, this is like me running up my credit cards to the max and then dying only to leave a large unpaid debt. You end up paying my debt through credit costs. Is that part of the GDP? I digress. You get my drift.

[dd74]

All I get is running up my credit cards to the max and staging my own death. That's a novel idea. Thanks!

[sammyg2]

Damn oil compamies are screwing us again

[Milu]

$3 a gallon looks like a bargain to us in Europe.

[vash]

Originally posted by Milu
$3 a gallon looks like a bargain to us in Europe.

come on! you dont even know what a gallon is!

[dd74]

Originally posted by unfixed
come on! you dont even know what a gallon is!

LOL!

[Milu]

Originally posted by unfixed
come on! you dont even know what a gallon is!

Sure I do. it's about $7 for Shell v power Gas guzzler anyone?



Translation of cartoon:

INCREASE IN COST OF PETROL

"Go on, say you're my b1tch"

[tabs]

Blah, Blah, Blah..... and more stupidity from the sheep....

[vash]

milu, that is a great one! thanks for the translation!

[Milu]

Originally posted by unfixed
milu, that is a great one! thanks for the translation!

No problema.
In that case I'll do what I should have done in the first place:

[john70t]

It would be o.k. if that money went into the general fund instead of the private coffers of a (uhmmm) select few. Fuel economy standards have been long overdue, and there's a lot of transportation infrastructure needed that could have been put in place cheaply long ago had anyone had the foresight to think that cities might actually grow.

[350HP930]

Thanks to the proliferation of SUVs and their exception from the federal MPG mandates the national MPG average is now the worse it has been in years.