Gas is gonna go through the roof.....

[SpasticGramps]

Isn't that going to happen, is in the process of happening anyway with the emergence of China and India as the new market of consumers that drive the world markets? I mean regardless of Berneke, The FED and printing of money?

I mean even if everything was all relatively pre 9/11 stable here and everyone was working and spending like normal, the government was in the black like it was pre 9/11 or at least substantially less in the red. The stock market was roughly at it's highest, etc. Things would still be heading this direction because of a much larger pool of consumers that has now been activated by companies shipping jobs and manufacturing overseas. Soon that market's influence will become greater and the best deals will go there. Just like Europe pays more for fuel because we are such a bigger market with a greater demand, soon we'll be the ones paying more because China and India is a much bigger market then us and people there can afford things now.

Yes that's already happening. I think what people miss when thinking about losing reserve currency status we are going to be paying siginficantly higher prices for everything. When most countries want to go buy oil they have to go buy dollars first and then oil. Because the US doesn't have to do this we pay a much lower price. Much lower. And this goes for about 85% of global traded goods I believe.

When we have to go buy another currency or whatever to buy our goods prices will be markedly higher. There are demographic issues here too. They correlate heavily into consumer spending. Plus, severe budget problems and national solvency issues, etc, etc.

You can't just ignore the FED and the liquidity expansion. It's the bubble of all bubbles. It's what is keeping the wheels on the Ponzi Bus. But this what central bankers do throughout history. They ride the currency till the wheels fall off. Humans just can't help themselves over the long term.

China has their own inflation and social unrest problems.

 

[Bullfrog44]

33 cent raise in gas per gal in one month. Second fastest rate ever!

 

[Mountain]

China has their own inflation and social unrest problems.

Yup...gonna be VERY interesting how this all plays out in the next handful or two of years and we all have ring side seats!

 

[whodare]

cant wait till gas is 10 dollars a gallon or better. lol think cost of living has gone up in recent times, just wait...

 

[HempKat]

Yes that's already happening. I think what people miss when thinking about losing reserve currency status we are going to be paying siginficantly higher prices for everything. When most countries want to go buy oil they have to go buy dollars first and then oil. Because the US doesn't have to do this we pay a much lower price. Much lower. And this goes for about 85% of global traded goods I believe.

When we have to go buy another currency or whatever to buy our goods prices will be markedly higher. There are demographic issues here too. They correlate heavily into consumer spending. Plus, severe budget problems and national solvency issues, etc, etc.

You can't just ignore the FED and the liquidity expansion. It's the bubble of all bubbles. It's what is keeping the wheels on the Ponzi Bus. But this what central bankers do throughout history. They ride the currency till the wheels fall off. Humans just can't help themselves over the long term.

China has their own inflation and social unrest problems.

I'm not meaning to ignore it just pointing out that it looks like we end up in the same place with or without it but one slows down the speed at which we arrive to the same point.

I'm just baffled that given that we seem to be headed down this path, why more isn't being done to change direction in a positive way. There are just too many potential solutions we've only recently begun to explore that could turn things around if we apply our R&D capabilities. The right solution or combination of solutions could provide work for unemployed Americans, put us back on the map as a strong manufacturing base and maintain our status as leaders in innovation. Yet I see no great effort to motivate our youth into education and jobs that could lead to such things. No serious commitment from the corporate and private sector towards funding such endeavors. A few token gestures but nothing with enough meat to it to attract enough public support.

 

[igrowone]

I'm not meaning to ignore it just pointing out that it looks like we end up in the same place with or without it but one slows down the speed at which we arrive to the same point.

I'm just baffled that given that we seem to be headed down this path, why more isn't being done to change direction in a positive way. There are just too many potential solutions we've only recently begun to explore that could turn things around if we apply our R&D capabilities. The right solution or combination of solutions could provide work for unemployed Americans, put us back on the map as a strong manufacturing base and maintain our status as leaders in innovation. Yet I see no great effort to motivate our youth into education and jobs that could lead to such things. No serious commitment from the corporate and private sector towards funding such endeavors. A few token gestures but nothing with enough meat to it to attract enough public support.

some fundamental economic practices change very slowly, even if it's becoming plain the practices can't continue
inertia holds us in place
oil is a great example, total oil reserves are still huge, just that the costs of extraction are rising sharply
for years we've had way too cheap oil, and a world economy has grown around that cheap oil

 

[REZDOG]

Gas is gas like cigarettes are cigarettes.
Do you think 5€/gallon is going to stop autobahn fun?

 

[whodare]

Gas is gas like cigarettes are cigarettes.
Do you think 5€/gallon is going to stop autobahn fun?

lol yea for alot of people it will, especially when you combine that with a doubling or worse of food prices, and a huge recession in the stock market...

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Let's see, Autobahn fun. That would be a very nice car. My little TC only does 130. I'd get rear ended.

 

[SpasticGramps]

European Gasoline Hits All Time Record Of $8.632 Per Gallon

The current discussion about fears of inflation are largely overstated.

- Uncle Ben "Benocide" Bernanke

 

[longearedfriend]

I'm buying myself a scooter for this spring/summer
gonna take the bus in the winter and walk (fortunately I am only 30 mins from school)

i'm done with cars

 

[Mountain]

Do you think 5€/gallon is going to stop autobahn fun?

Nope...you'll just see less 'low end' drivers so the top end of the market will experience less traffic.

 

[SpasticGramps]

I'm not meaning to ignore it just pointing out that it looks like we end up in the same place with or without it but one slows down the speed at which we arrive to the same point.

The government should have let the private sector banks collapse and come back. That's how the free market works. We would have come back from that as hard as it would have been.

However now that the government stepped in and propped up failed institutions the losses were passed onto us. This is Fascism at it's finest. The problem is the next collapse will be the governments because they (read me and you) adsorbed the losses. There is no more backstop. The public sector and the private sector are one and the same now. It's arguably been that way for a while and this is just the end game. My personal opinion.

We have a definite lack of will to change in this country. Combined with the urgent need to change logically means that we will ride this bus until it drives off the cliff and we are forced to change through extreme strife. That's how it usually is though. We don't change until our environment forces us too. Humans are collectively complacent by nature. It's why history continues to repeat itself.

 

[Blueshark]

Well stated!! If things do go to sh*t, there WILL be those who prepare and will be ok. At least for a little while.
I can see several ways this could end and none are good. In order to pay off the debt that has been growing for 50 or so years, strife for us will ensue.... We may re-live what our Grandparents or Great Grandparents went through.
I really hope I'm wrong, but I do believe there will be worse times before things ever get back to some degree of normalcy.
Anyway, I prefer to be the ant.... The grasshoppers can go to hell....and so can the 'one world' crowd. Our country and the whole world needs to wake up faster and stop heading down the road of no return. If not, caution, huge bumps ahead

 

[SpasticGramps]

Looks like Kuwait may be joining the party.

Kuwait square blocked after protest calls

POLICE have barricaded a main square in Kuwait's capital before planned protests for greater political freedoms that could bring another Gulf state into the surge for reforms around the Arab world.

The police cordons around Kuwait City's central Safat Square were a high-profile warning to demonstrators, but organisers used social media to point to alternative sites in attempts to keep a step ahead of the crackdown.

Although the calls for protests would mark the first in Kuwait since the stunning Arab uprisings, the oil-rich Gulf nation is no stranger to political showdowns.

Kuwait has the region's most powerful parliament and opposition MPs have waged open battles against the ruling system, including nearly bringing down the prime minister two times with no-confidence votes.

One of the protest slogans: "Leave! We Deserve Better!"

The planned rallies were timed to dovetail with the return of parliament from a nearly month-long recess.

One of the first acts was the swearing-in of the new interior minister, whose predecessor was dismissed in January following an uproar when a suspect accused of illegal liquor sales was beaten to death in police custody.

But the main target of Kuwait's opposition remains the prime minister, Sheik Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, accused of stifling political freedoms and muzzling dissent.

The prime minister is a nephew of Kuwait's emir, whose ruling family holds all major government posts and controls the oil riches in the world's fourth-largest producer.

The Gulf is already gripped by unprecedented political unrest. Bahrain's monarchy has been hit by more than three weeks of protests and clashes. Smaller protests have flared in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Last month, police in Kuwait used tear gas to disperse protests by descendants of desert nomads demanding Kuwait citizenship and the generous state benefits that come with it.

In all the talk of the Arab Ruling Monarchies we forget about the indigenous people.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

The unrest in the ME is a great scapegoat for the surge in oil prices.
Never ket a crisis go to waste.
We all know speculation (which Obummer railed against while campaigning), lack of domestic production and the devaluation of the dollar (thanks Ben) are the primary culprits.
The thing that sucks is my turbocharged engine need at least 93 octane to keep the ECU happy.

 

[SuperSizeMe]

I just picked up an SUV...cheap

 

[SpasticGramps]

I have to run 93 in my car too. Since I've gotten better and started going to the rigs some more I'm going to have to get another truck. I've been borrowing my parents ride when I came out here, but that's getting tiring.

I'm actually in Fort Worth hitting all our Barnett Shale rigs right now. I'll snap a couple of pictures with my iPhone and post them tomorrow.

 

[ocean_grown]

Anyone participating in the planned Gas Strike tomorrow? March 10th, refuse fossil fuels.

 

[SpasticGramps]

No. I'm busy. I'll be drilling for fossil fuels tomorrow.