Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Max on March 29, 2012 at 14:48

Thanks sesport, the next time I hear the old stump speech about the middle east, I'll know better......

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Permalink Reply by Max on March 31, 2012 at 3:04

The dr

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Permalink Reply by Max on March 31, 2012 at 3:05

I'll get back later, something not working.....

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Permalink Reply by Keith on March 31, 2012 at 6:37

Sesport. the main reason our demand fell in America was due to the great recession and the housing bubble.

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Permalink Reply by Krkyoldhag on March 31, 2012 at 11:02

What I know from my own observation:  there were 50 or more autos driving past my house two years ago each day.  Now in 3/12 there are 4 or less then 10 a day.  That means someone is not driving.  And I figure its people with 3 auto familes  having to shut a couple down (teens?) and my friends and I drive about 1/3 what we drove two years ago.

I think the only people driving are going places they have to be.  Like work? 

It just cost me $3.84 cents today per gallon...a 50 dollar bill.  It costs me 80 miles at 22 mpg to go into town and back.  Have to think about that before I crank up anymore. 

I will  be using fans not a/c this summer as I shut down the central and used space heaters this winter.  Have to..can't pay bills if I don't.  I figure there are lots more people out there like me.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 1, 2012 at 4:46

Krkyoldhag, your one person of millions in the same boat. Your the example of what I was saying.

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Permalink Reply by Max on April 1, 2012 at 5:26

Krkyoldhag,

OK, the downturn has parked a few cars, but let me get this straight....there were 50 cars driving by your house two years ago each day.  You live 40 miles from town.  In March 2012, the number of cars driving by has fell to 10 or less.  After scratching my head on that one, the most practical thing that could have resulted in an 80% decrease of cars driving by your house is the drug dealer down the road moved to a new location.

Question number 2.  People with teenagers and 3 cars.  Get real, keys to a teenager is freedom.  You think it's simple to take freedom away from a teenager because gas cost more.  Not on this planet. LOL

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 1, 2012 at 4:44

It's all about jobs, disposible income and the macro economy. If you don't have a job then you don't drive to work. Fewer workers mean less income to buy fuel and they need to fuel to live. They can't drive around looking for work because they are broke. In this day and age the internet is also a reason that people don't drive around looking for work.

 

The housing bubble caused a credit crisis and they both caused people to not be able to use their house like an ATM machine. How many people were putting gasoline on the credit card? Well that's stopped for many people after the credit crunch. How many people got laid off after the housing bubble? It's all connected. If you want to see how our economy is doing you don't have to trust the governments unemployment data or consumer price index, just look at how much gasoline and diesel we consume every month. That will show a trend of the real economy.

 

Just connect the dots.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 1, 2012 at 13:21

Seport ll, I agree with responsibility but lets look at that in the context of history. Historically after the great depression banks had very strict lending practices. For many reasons the banks and the mortgage companies changed their long held practices. They started giving loans to people that could previously never get loans. Why were they unable, because those people weren't dependable or financially able to get loans. So the banks started depending on undependable people to pay loans back. That's like expecting an alcoholic to guard my liquor cabinet. What the banks did from 2000 to 2008 was illogical, irrational and stupid. They were the adults in the room and they should have been responsible.

 

Now if our people in power continue to try to re-inflate our bubble economy then we will continue to have large swings in fuel prices. If the federal reserve continues quantitative easing policies we'll have inflationary pressures on fuel even as we use less of it.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 2, 2012 at 12:32

I think our production increase was a separate issue from the housing bubble. For the states that had a this drilling activity it was a saving grace. I also don't think our crude oil producion increase is sustainable without the continued drilling increase that we have had in the recent past. The production decline rate seen in Bakken wells tells me we'll need more Bakken wells for instance.

Permalink Reply by Max on April 1, 2012 at 5:31

I was going to say yesterday that we could get all our oil from this side of the world.  There's plenty in South America.  When you hear Middle East Oil, our biggest tie to it is keeping the world running on oil with our military. 

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 1, 2012 at 6:37

Max, we do get a large chunk of our oil from the western hemisphere, but oil is a global commodity. Even if we got all of our oil from from the United States (as we once did) we would still have to pay whatever the global market price was for that grade of oil. With few exceptions.

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