The price of oil fell $3.45 today yet I saw stations hiking the price up as much as ten cents. They are determined to get it to three dollars, using "spring additives" as an excuse or maybe Memorial Day and there is always the Fourth of July "driving season."
Meanwhile, Mr "Hope and Change" in the White House has not done anything. Granted, he is trying to push a Wall Street reform package through Congress but what he needs to look at is reinstutuing regulations on commodoties markets.
Because any economic recovery you think you see is going to be short circuited by gas prices.
That is what happened back in 2008 when out of control oil speculators (not OPEC for once) pushed the price of oil to $147 a barrel and gas was $4.17 a gallon on average across the nation and higher, of course, on the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. I also remembering seeing people starting to grow vegatables in their back yard and hearing about police patrols getting cut back due to high fuel prices. While the economy tumbled into melt down, Fearless Leader Bush refused to do anything about regulating oil markets, even threatening to veto any legislation on the matter that reached his desk.
Meanwhile, I saw people walking and riding bikes to work (not a bad thing since many of them really needed the excercise...) but then I heard about soup kitchens shutting down and saw empty shelves appearing in grocery stores because they could no longer pay for shipping on items. Fuel costs were the culprit.
The clincher was a day in July when some guy came into my store and tried to sell me his tool belt for $40 because he needed gas to get to work on some construction site. How long was that going to last in a time of $4+ gas?
The bubble burst and gas sank to $1.59. Since Hope and Change came to America in January 2009, the price is on the edge of $3 again.
Looking like Summer 2008 again...
...if that does happen, our pal from Chicago better get used to seeing "one term president" in front of his name.
Because the guy before him is already the Second Coming...
...of Herbert Hoover.
Oil prices are starting to plummet...from $87 a barrel to under $70...so why is the price of gas not following?
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