This is a good place to drop general and weird news, entertainment, and general show prep material that might be interesting to air talent or producers. Hot dog threads ALWAYS welcome.
AmpedNow wrote:
Some are predicting $5 per gallon by July, if this leak isn't controlled soon. Due to one out of control oil rig. This is how volatile oil prices still are.
There are quite a few oil rigs operating in the Gulf. Take them all offline all at once, thousands are out of work from Texas to Florida. Gasoline goes well above $5 per gallon.
The price increase of gasoline is not related to the the leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico. If the supply of gasoline was that tight, then there would not be three shuttered refineries within 50 miles of Philadelphia.
Also, we will never see gasoline under $2.00/gallon because of the latest round of minimum wage increases. Paying people more money to work means we have to pay more money for the goods that we buy.
The price of gas at the pump is related to neither the gulf spill or the minimum wage ( though that's a unique tack I think). It's related to increased demand due to recovering world economies and the strength of the dollar, among other factors, as can be seen by the over 20 cents a gallon drop in the wholesale price in the last 2 days over worries about the Greek economic crisis and slowing growth in China along with a resurgence in the strength of the dollar.
Genlock makes a good point above on ways to decrease foreign oil dependence. In essence, increases in the price of oil will decrease our dependence on foreign oil by spurring alternative sources of fuel.
And again, the oil leaking right now is foreign oil. owned by BP.
Bob Campbell wrote:
The price of gas at the pump is related to neither the gulf spill or the minimum wage ( though that's a unique tack I think). It's related to increased demand due to recovering world economies and the strength of the dollar, among other factors, as can be seen by the over 20 cents a gallon drop in the wholesale price in the last 2 days over worries about the Greek economic crisis and slowing growth in China along with a resurgence in the strength of the dollar.
Supply and demand in the case of oil and gasoline is not based on the number of consumers purchasing the product at the pump. It is driven by exchange and commodities traders who have extra cash and can drive up the price of gasoline based on what they think expected conditions are going to be. If the American consumer was using as much oil products as 2 years ago, then oil companies would not be shutting down refineries. Cash for Clunkers had a good, positive impact on the amount of oil used in this nation. Hell, even I modernized my big ass sedan and went from 24 MPG highway to 30 MPG highway.
And if the US is not spending on gasoline, we also are not spending as much on 90% of the products and services that we used prior to the economic collapse. I happen to know from first hand experience that India is not making nearly as many dollars from offshored services as they thought. That economy is as stagnant as the US and Europe. Brazil is borrowing money on their future for the 2012 Olympics so they have lots of construction jobs and China is in trouble, but they really don't know it just yet.
The first step in a successful revolution is to defeat all competing revolutionaries.
No doubt that commodities speculation also has an effect. You'll notice the huge drops in the last few days as the dollar strengthened due to the euro crisis.
