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Investigation into rising gas prices


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How about $3.50 per gallon>

 

Any price above or below $3.50 will eventually regress back.

 

Tried that argument yesterday; they said I had to pay full, incorrect price since the regression to the true average value of gasoline wasn't heritable because I'm not an East German scientist.

 

They were very truculent about it too.

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But you should have a reason for your opinion. I was really looking more for why you feel gas should be a specific amount as opposed to what that specific dollar amount is. So, why should gas not be above $3.00?

 

Ok my gas should be $1.50 and yours $5.75.

 

My reason? Stupid should hurt.

I have an uber-liberal friend who lives in your neck of the woods, and we usually just toss little political jabs at each other, but last Friday he genuinely told me that gas going to $5/gallon is no big deal in the US because it's much higher in other parts of the world, so we shouldn't complain if we have to pay a few bucks more to fill our tanks.

 

Typical liberal thinking: high gas prices only show up at the pump.

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I have an uber-liberal friend who lives in your neck of the woods, and we usually just toss little political jabs at each other, but last Friday he genuinely told me that gas going to $5/gallon is no big deal in the US because it's much higher in other parts of the world, so we shouldn't complain if we have to pay a few bucks more to fill our tanks.

 

Typical liberal thinking: high gas prices only show up at the pump.

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase at the pump increases transportation costs?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase in transportation costs increases the cost of food commodities?

 

Besides the whole eating thing, have you tried to explain to your friend how an increase in the costs of a specific food commodity, let's call it "Commodity C", affects the costs of a non food item that we'll call "Ingredient E"?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend that "Ingredient E" is up to 15% of gasoline?

 

Vicious cycle we're in now

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Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase at the pump increases transportation costs?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase in transportation costs increases the cost of food commodities?

 

Besides the whole eating thing, have you tried to explain to your friend how an increase in the costs of a specific food commodity, let's call it "Commodity C", affects the costs of a non food item that we'll call "Ingredient E"?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend that "Ingredient E" is up to 15% of gasoline?

 

Vicious cycle we're in now

 

Don't forget the part where corn grown for ethanol is corn not grown for food, and either way it drives up the price of gas because the fertilizer is petroleum-based.

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Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase at the pump increases transportation costs?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase in transportation costs increases the cost of food commodities?

 

Besides the whole eating thing, have you tried to explain to your friend how an increase in the costs of a specific food commodity, let's call it "Commodity C", affects the costs of a non food item that we'll call "Ingredient E"?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend that "Ingredient E" is up to 15% of gasoline?

 

Vicious cycle we're in now

 

Years ago when I worked in the kitchen when gas was high all our deliveries would have a fuel surcharge added to the invoice. When you get several deliveries every day that adds up.

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Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase at the pump increases transportation costs?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase in transportation costs increases the cost of food commodities?

 

Besides the whole eating thing, have you tried to explain to your friend how an increase in the costs of a specific food commodity, let's call it "Commodity C", affects the costs of a non food item that we'll call "Ingredient E"?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend that "Ingredient E" is up to 15% of gasoline?

 

Vicious cycle we're in now

I started to, right up to the moment he started gloating -- yes, gloating -- that Obama is doing a fantastic job given the eight years of child-raping and grandma-killing that he inherited. He brought us back from the brink. He saved millions of jobs. The stimulus was too small. This is a guy who used to explain that he always looked forward to his nightly dose of Keith Olbermann.

 

Explaining your truths above was never really worth the effort.

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I started to, right up to the moment he started gloating -- yes, gloating -- that Obama is doing a fantastic job given the eight years of child-raping and grandma-killing that he inherited. He brought us back from the brink. He saved millions of jobs. The stimulus was too small. This is a guy who used to explain that he always looked forward to his nightly dose of Keith Olbermann.

 

Explaining your truths above was never really worth the effort.

 

:unsure:

 

I had a friend like that. Except it wasn't "occasional" - every conversation was ignorant rants about the evils of how the world works, based on complete ignorance of how the world works.

 

Stopped returning his calls two years ago. Don't miss him.

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Years ago when I worked in the kitchen when gas was high all our deliveries would have a fuel surcharge added to the invoice. When you get several deliveries every day that adds up.

It sure does...and business is not going to just absorb that cost and say "oh well", they will pass it along to the end consumers with higher prices to recoup their expenses

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:unsure:

 

I had a friend like that. Except it wasn't "occasional" - every conversation was ignorant rants about the evils of how the world works, based on complete ignorance of how the world works.

 

Stopped returning his calls two years ago. Don't miss him.

Oh....I guess I should stop waiting by the phone for your call than....heartless bastard.

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Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase at the pump increases transportation costs?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend how an increase in transportation costs increases the cost of food commodities?

 

Besides the whole eating thing, have you tried to explain to your friend how an increase in the costs of a specific food commodity, let's call it "Commodity C", affects the costs of a non food item that we'll call "Ingredient E"?

 

Have you tried explaining to your friend that "Ingredient E" is up to 15% of gasoline?

 

Vicious cycle we're in now

Transportation drives costs up for almost everything? Thats perfect for the current administration. Now even more people need food stamps and assistance. Even better big business in oil can shoulder the blame again

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Most of you already know my position on this, but if you're interested, here's a broad look at how innovations and investment flows have added a premium to oil (estimated by Goldman to be between 15-20%).

Oil/Gas prices

 

A financial treatise in Artvoice? I guess Rolling Stone ran out of space with Taibbi's rants. And yes, we can shoot the meesenger on this one.

 

Are you seriously saying that the Wall Street lobby is more powerful than the farm & food lobby? I'm sure that Obama's blue ribbon panel will be far more effective than the investigative panels that were convened in the last decade? And just how does a 15%-20% premium that speculators apparently add to the price equate to a 100% increase in the price of gas in 1 year?

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I have an uber-liberal friend who lives in your neck of the woods, and we usually just toss little political jabs at each other, but last Friday he genuinely told me that gas going to $5/gallon is no big deal in the US because it's much higher in other parts of the world, so we shouldn't complain if we have to pay a few bucks more to fill our tanks.

 

Typical liberal thinking: high gas prices only show up at the pump.

 

 

NOT typical liberal thinking. I think it's horrible that gas prices are going up the way they are and so far it seems like no one has an answer on how to get them under control and lowered.

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NOT typical liberal thinking. I think it's horrible that gas prices are going up the way they are and so far it seems like no one has an answer on how to get them under control and lowered.

Then stop buying so much effing gas! Organize car pools, take mass transit, walk somewhere. Stop going out 5 times a day for everything. Everything isn't supposed to be easy. Sometimes you have to make a choice. If people stop buying so much gas, I promise you, Pbills, the price will go down.

Edited by jjamie12
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NOT typical liberal thinking. I think it's horrible that gas prices are going up the way they are and so far it seems like no one has an answer on how to get them under control and lowered.

 

Is it horrible that coffee prices are going up the way they are? How about bread? How about home prices in 2004?

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The argument that speculation is adding to the price of just about anything in my view is ridiculous. Speculation sometimes can get a bit frothy, but none the less that money that is being placed into that certain investment or commodity in this case is happening for a reason. It's not as if that "speculation" is some sort of evil occurence in the market place that occurs when nothing is happening, it derives from sort of fundamental.

 

In this case, the price of oil has risen approximately 25-30% since the beginning of the Middle East Ordeal, then again, we were heading into gasoline refinery maint. time of the year and anticipation of the driving season that usually adds about 10-15% on the price of gasoline. So if you take that away from the price of gasoline, you could rationally argue that the middle east chaos has added about 15% to the price of gasoline. Now of course you can chalk this up as "speculation", which of course it factually is, but it's warranted. Why? Because one there is about a little over a million barrels physically being taken off of the market, but more importantly is the risk premium.

 

Fact, there is a finite amount of oil out there. Fact, we are getting pretty close (probably a couple years) to reaching a point to where there will be no more excess supply of oil. So the closer we reach that point, and the more we face these risk scenarios where oil could potentially be taken off of the market because of supply shocks whether it be from Oil pipeline issues, hurricanes, nigerian sweet crude political issues or middle easter chaos the more this "risk premium" gets built into the price of oil.

 

So, one can call it "speculation" all they want, but that speculation is there for a reason. Like I said, sometimes prices can get a bit frothy and investors can get a bit overzealous and the prices overshoot, but that is a very very temporary issue, that gets resolved quickly by the technical investors. What we are seeing today with the price of Oil is most likely in my view going to stay up at these levels for the foreseeable future. Frothy speculation would of been taken out by now if it was unwarranted.

 

Then stop buying so much effing gas! Organize car pools, take mass transit, walk somewhere. Stop going out 5 times a day for everything. Everything isn't supposed to be easy. Sometimes you have to make a choice. If people stop buying so much gas, I promise you, Pbills, the price will go down.

That is a bit unrealistic that we will see this in near to mid future. Sure, if there is a huge price spike we will see a plunge in demand for gasoline, but as long as the trend continues up without any serious price spikes, we'll continue to keep seeing prices go higher. And lets not forget with whats happening to the value of the dollar.

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Then stop buying so much effing gas! Organize car pools, take mass transit, walk somewhere. Stop going out 5 times a day for everything. Everything isn't supposed to be easy. Sometimes you have to make a choice. If people stop buying so much gas, I promise you, Pbills, the price will go down.

 

 

I live 33 miles from where I work. Walking is not an option. I already carpool with my father-in-law. Mass Transit is not an option either. Sooo, I wish I could stop buying so much gas... but that's not an option.

 

Is it horrible that coffee prices are going up the way they are? How about bread? How about home prices in 2004?

 

 

There is no doubt that fuel prices going up affects other industries. I don't drink coffee so no idea about that.

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