They’ve helped MY economy!
Just made it easier to ship everything off-shore while other prices continue to rise.
$2.50/gal for gasoline is still a ripoff.
Oil sees to be steadily marching back to $45 per barrel from the low of about $31 per barrel. So pump prices are heading back up. Fundamentals really haven’t changed, but somebody has made the determination of where prices need to be.
Because the regulatory agencies have outlawed everything entrepreneurial.
I predict the price target for oil is around $50 per barrel. Might swing a bit lower and then there will be times it spike well past that. It’s all manipulated, and now that the frackers are all but out the ability to manipulate the oil market is re-strengthened back to where the money managers like.
> A year and a half ago, energy expenses constituted 5.4 percent of total consumer spending. Today that share is down to 3.7 percent.
That’s a good thing for the average person. The success of the economy shouldn’t be measured by how fast you can mindlessly shuffle money around (GDP). Cheaper oil gives people the option to save or live a little better on the same income.
Bullfeathers!
I think this is the correct interpretation. Those who see gasoline expenses as a larger percentage of their monthly income (Uber drivers?) have spent that windfall on higher consumption of other things. People who don't use much gasoline have not directly benefited. The bigger drag has been piss-poor federal spending/taxation policy goals which has put everyone who earns an income on the defensive. If you're on welfare, you've seen a 31% increase in your payments since Dufus came into office, so you're on a spending roll. If you're on SS like me, the increase is 0.2%, so you tend to hold spending in check 'cuz you don't know what the Chief Idiot is going to do. It's likely worse for business planning under such conditions of uncertainty.
How about why the poor economy led to low oil prices?
Because all the money you saved from buying gas has gone to the healthcare industry. obunghole care.
The fact is ... the only thing that had been propping up the US economy was all the money being made in the states with oil. Now that oil has fallen so low.... those states are no longer doing so good, and thus the entire economy is being exposed for how bad it really is.
Any savings we make on gas we put back into savings, paying off debt, etc., but no splurging, that’s for sure.
Uh, could it be because Obama’s Socialism has crippled the economy so badly that even low oil prices can’t revive it?
“the macro evidence, which shows no evidence of a significant increase overall, is that there were other factors besides oil prices that were holding everybody’s consumption back, such as slower income growth and more precautionary saving.”
Milton Friedman advanced the idea that people consume out of their “permanent income.” That may apply here.
I think the Obama economy has been weak in terms of producing full-time private sector jobs. Fracking, which the Democrats oppose, has been the only bright spot that I know about. This may be a good time for precautionary saving.
A robust, growing private sector economy should lead to a lot of spending. Not just spending from income growth, but spending out of optimism for the future.
Today’s low gasoline prices is like getting a raise. But how long will it last?
Anyone know how the RV industry is doing? Some people might be tempted to buy an RV now due to lower gasoline prices. But they will be hammered if prices go back up.
Have lower oil prices led to lower priced air fair yet? Belief in a permanent reduction in fuel prices will lead to many changes including new aircraft purchases by the airlines.
Thanks to government (Obama, Fannie Mae, possibly the Fed), we had, and presumably still have, an oversupply of housing. How long will that last? Excess government debt may lead to higher taxes. An aging population spends differently.
I have little doubt that fracking and low oil/gasoline prices have helped keep us out of the grave that Obama is digging for America. But he is still digging, and Hillary or Bernie will do the same.
This writer must have someone else paying their bills.
Gas prices goes down a dollar and you get to keep thousands of dollars in your pocket as a result. #23 summed it up. Just like the rich paying the most taxes in states. When they move that states economy takes a hit.
net oil importer like the United States.
Very simple.
Everything else has gone up to suck up any “left over” from the drop in oil/gas prices. And now, with the switch back to the “summer blends”, gas prices are going back up anyway.
I am now celebrating over 10, almost 11 years at my current employer - and just now making as much as I did at a different job in 2003.
Of course, now I have 3 kids and my dad lives with me, plus my wife quit her teaching job, so my single income has to stretch a LOT further.