Posted on 01/06/2011 7:14:31 AM PST by danielmryan
Almost as surely as dawn precedes daylight, the rising price of oil tends to lead to higher gas prices. With the price of a barrel of oil at around $90, there is increasing concern that expensive fuel will choke off the U.S. economic recovery. At TheAtlantic.com, Lisa Margonelli makes the case that gas, at $3.07 a gallon across the country, is already problematic....
Nobody wants to see a repeat of 2007 and 2008, when gas prices spiked to above $4 per gallon, as this chart from Gasbuddy shows, and people began to ride horses to run errands. But for several reasons, rising gas prices in 2011 won't have anywhere near the psychological and actual economic effect they did just a few years ago.
First, the U.S. is consuming less gasoline on a per capita basis than it did a few years ago. It may be too soon to argue that we've reached a level of peak gasoline consumption, but it's also clear that we're not nearly as addicted to oil as a transportation fuel as we were a few years ago. According to the Energy Department, growth of motor gasoline consumption stalled out in the middle of the last decade. From a peak of 3.389 billion barrels in 2007, consumption fell in both 2008 and 2009; 2009's total of 3.283 billion barrels was 3.1 percent below the 2007 total. (Data showing the four-week average of consumption reveal that gasoline sales picked up a bit in 2010.)
Consumption has fallen in part because the much-maligned, SUV-heavy U.S. car fleet is getting more fuel efficient with every passing day....
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Not as much as you'd think. The majority of our imported oil comes from Mexico, Canada, and Russia. I'll try and find the reference and post it.
Yup - that’s why I posted
“Inflation? Not so much.”
Rich to Daniel Gross: FYVM. Kthxbai.
Understood. I was just rephrasing.
“In the end, you realize - we are soooooo screwed, so why bother - there is nothing you can do but watch. “
Yes, we are pretty screwed. About the only thing you can do is convert the play money into real goods, food, ammo, gold and silver, and hope it is enough to make it though the coming economic whirlwind.
And some cash for a bank holiday!!!!
Been doing that for years.
You forgot - Get out of debt!
Other than helping birth my onw children (and grandkids) having the banker lady hand the paper and say - “You sir are now a home owner!” had to be one of the happier days in my life. This was some time ago.
Other than the house, we have been debt free (other than the usual end of month utilites, etc) since 1983. And now are totally debt free.
It is a great feeling, to say the least.
He's saying people don't drive anymore because they don't like getting stuck in all that traffic. Like Yogi Berra once said, "People don't go there any more. It's too crowded."
I agree but from a different opinion. It will look cheap as we look back in a few years when prices could well be north of $4-$5 a gallon.
The only thing that is not total paid off is the house.
Cars and credit cards, own and paid up monthly.
It is a good feeling to not have those debts over ones head.
No, it is Obammy trying to ruin America.
One way to do so is to destroy our oil industry along with our coal industry.
But Hey, when gas is 4.50 a galon next year?
http://www.newsweek.com/authors/daniel-gross.html — “Daniel Gross is one of the most widely read financial and economic writers working today. He is a senior editor at Newsweek, where he writes the ‘Contrary Indicator’ column. He writes the twice-weekly ‘Moneybox’ column for Slate, which also appears on Newsweek.com.”
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