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WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 4:31:57 AM   
candystripper


Posts: 3486
Joined: 11/1/2005
Status: offline 		Is it just because Ohio is a swing state?  Is it supposed to reassure us all is well, go ahead and vote Republican again?  Gas prices have suddenly dropped near to or even below $2 a gallon here.
 
Any conspiracy theories?
 
candystripper 
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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:00:37 AM   
atursvcMaam


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Status: offline 		it is a vast conspiracy.  i participated. i stopped driving so much, cancelled longer trips, and stayed more local. i thought $4.00/gallon was ridiculous.  i did not worry so much about tire pressure or tune ups, just planned better, as, apparently did enough folks to lower demand.  but Shhhh, it's a big secret, don't tell anyone.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:03:29 AM   
Irishknight


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Status: offline 		Whatever the cause, just enjoy it.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:05:42 AM   
Lucylastic


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Status: offline 		I just saw on tv that gas here in Toronto is down to 90 cents a litre, and our election was two weeks ago:) but our prices are lousy anyway.
Lucy


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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:23:02 AM   
OneMoreWaste


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Status: offline 		Under $2/gallon? Daaaaamn! Even at $2.40 I'm considering filling a couple of spare 55-gallon drums before it goes back up.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:33:07 AM   
hizgeorgiapeach


Posts: 1672
Status: offline 		The stations here near my place in the OKC metro are all under $2 a gallon - the place where I've been filling up is currently sitting at $1.92/gal for regular unleaded, and $2.12/gal for premium.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:37:23 AM   
Dnomyar


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Status: offline 		Down to $2.12 here in my area of Michigan

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:39:22 AM   
lusciouslips19


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Do you think the powers that be might have realized they were cutting off there nose to spite their face when we America started developing more Hybrids, electric car sales increased, uses of scooters, etc? We also talked about alternative fuel sources. So they are hoping that we will have a short memory once the prices go down and stop cutting back. this was happening even before the whole crises started happening. Prices were starting to creep down.

However,, I believe the cat is out of the bag and we will continue to look for ways to not be dependent on foreign oil.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 5:56:52 AM   
Sanity


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It's a global market, and "the powers that be" are producing more oil than the world can use during the current global economic slowdown... back when the global economy was red-hot, they couldn't pump the stuff fast enough. But don't worry, OPEC is turning down the spigot...

Factories have slowed or shut down, people have also quit driving as much, some have even started to go hungry a little bit, and many aren't keeping their homes heated or air conditioned as much as they really need to.

The only real conspiracy is that the environmental extremists still refuse to allow anyone to develop the energy that we need need to prosper, and in many cases even to survive... and that's why we're experiencing the fits and starts that we are.

There is no reason that we shouldn't always have a glut of energy on the market, and OPEC shouldn't have this kind of power over us, ever.






< Message edited by Sanity -- 10/31/2008 6:17:05 AM >

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 6:52:17 AM   
pahunkboy


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Status: offline 		I hate to bare bad news kids.

world wide factories are shut down.   so- energy is not being used.   the result will be less stuff. 

Oh-  A buddy of mine is a mechanic.  He said I do not want ethonal in the gas..that he has more repairs due to this then is normal.  I stopped for gas last night at 2.55, but I seen the pump read, may contain 10% ehtonal.  so I stopped at $3.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 7:06:28 AM   
candystripper


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Status: offline 		Here's another thing I ponder.  WTF is up with not prosecuting the gas compaines for price fixing?  Gas dropped suddenly here and by a wide margin...yet landed at approximately the same place at every gas station in town.  I cannot imagine that OPEC can micro-manage the gas prices to this degree...the gas companies HAVE to be sharing information and agreeing to fix prices.  So how come nobody ever goes to jail for this?
 
candystripper 

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 7:16:12 AM   
corysub


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Status: offline 		So many good points raised here as to why oil prices have declined from the record of around US$150.  Speculation was rampant from the summer of 2007 until a few months ago. Money was easy, and the economies of the world still looked strong with the impact of the credit crisis not yet impacting liquidity.  Starting with the collapse of major banks and brokers such as Bear, Stears and Lehman, the freezing up of credit markets has slowed near term growth and raised questions as to the depth of a recession.  Consumers are tapped and being very frugal in their spending for good reasons so that optimisitic projections on energy prices were erased. 
The weakness in oil also reflects the sharp advance in the dollar versus the Euro....you don't need as many dollars to buy that barrel of oil as the dollar went from E150 to E123 recently.  It currently is trading at around E130. 

As has been pointed out...we should take advantage of this "breather" in the price of crude to "drill baby drill" for oil and natural gas...build new refineries, develop the billions of tons of coal that the U.S. possesses, loosen the radical environmental control on our energy policy, and work towards energy independence, to include nuclear, solar, and wind.  We saw the future recently...and got lucky with the decline in prices...we should start now to insure that the future of our country is not to be in bondage to the Middle East.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 7:20:58 AM   
kdsub


Posts: 12180
Joined: 8/16/2007
Status: offline 		Many people have noticed and commented before on how strange it is that ever US presidential election the price of gas drops. Some have concluded that this temporary timed drop in prices is to help keep oil friendly politicians in control. Probably just a coincidence I'm sure.

It does seem strange though.

Butch

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 7:45:01 AM   
DedicatedDom40


Posts: 350
Joined: 9/22/2005
Status: offline 		Its the oil speculation bubble popping.

Personally, I think it goes to show just how much of our 'consumer economy' was financed by the extraction of home equity to pay for the buying of crap.  Now that the home equity well has run dry, the self-indulgance party is over, and consequently, gas inventories are rising pretty fast.

But even with the lower prices, the pumps are still pretty much deserted as they were during high price times.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 7:55:02 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		It's not a conspiracy at all, just a natural cycle in our economy. It happaens ever four years like clockwork. People have nothing to do with it, the election has nothing to do with it, it's just the oil wells seem to produce better in the months preceeding November every fourth year. Kind of like a geyser. Like Old Faithful.

Pay no attention to that guy getting on a preivate jet to Dubai. He is just a small businessman minding his own business.

So very glad to clear this up for everyone. Now you can sleep better knowing that these rich folk are strictly looking out for our best interest. They would never succumb to greed or try to influence our choices at a time like this. They are pure as the driven snow.

I'm off to Arizona to enjoy the beach, anyone want to go ?

T

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 8:00:31 AM   
ThatDaveGuy69


Posts: 978
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Status: offline 		CS: As much as we might like, gas prices being within a few cents of each other up and down the block is not any sort of conspiracy.  Gasoline - the finished product - is a fungible commodity.  So if the supply is high in northern IL and low in southern IL, it can be moved around to where it is needed.  So the independent gas stations can play the field and get pretty much the same product from several wholesalers.  Obviously, company stations (BP/Amoco, Exxon/Mobil, etc.) don't have that option.  But the gat station biz is very market-driven.  I have 4 different brands of gas station within a few blocks of me so in order to stay competitive they all need to be within a few cents of each other.  If gas drop by 5-cents at the Speedway, everyone goes there to fill up.  (This happened 2 weeks ago - the placed was mobbed! It looked like 1973!) So the DeltaSonic Carwash/Gas Station drops by 3 or 4 cents to keep even, or by 6 or 7 cents if they want to 1-up Speedway.  But then the Citgo guy sees this and all the business he's loosing so he has to lower his price.  And on it goes.  That's really just Econ 101 - no big deal.

What really gets me is that if oil prices go up $10/barrel today, gas will go up by at least a nickel tomorrow - even though that higher-priced oil isn't even on a ship yet.  But when oil prices began to drop, gas prices stayed high for a couple of weeks.  Now THAT seems suspicious.  Not to mention the insanely huge profits being reported by the oil companies.  If it truly costs them more to buy the oil - and all the other costs involved in refining remain pretty much the same - how is it possible for the profit margin to go through the roof?  So if a barrel of oil goes from $90 to $100, that's roughly a 10% increase in price.  So shouldn't the increase in the price of gas be 10%?  Say from $2.35 to $2.58?  Instead, Gas prices exceed $4.  Isn't that price gouging?  I realize we have a completely ineffectual Congress as far as questioning the oil execs, but couldn't some enterprising young States Attorney somewhere make a criminal case out of this?

Just be careful not to blame the gas station - no matter the price they only make a few pennies per gallon.  They make more money selling a Pepsi than they do selling a gallon of gas.  Which is pretty much why you don't see a gas station that only sells gas...

One last point: I was glad to hear McCain finally out Ethanol for the myth that it is.  Ethanol delivers about 25% less energy than the same amount of gasoline.  So you have to burn about 25% more Ethanol to do the same work/travel as far.  The only reason it costs the same is because of huge govrnment subsidies.  We have ADM, Cargill, etc. to thank for that.  And let's not forget that if you divert some percentage of corn into Ethanol, the price of nearly every food product goes up - supply & demand at work again.  Corn, or more precisely corn syrup, is in something like 80% of all foods found in your grocery store.  Again, we can thank the huge agri-business giants for stamping out the use of sugar and replacing it with HFCS.  It's amazing how intertwined everything is...

~Dave




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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 8:02:31 AM   
JustDarkness


Posts: 1461
Joined: 7/25/2008
Status: offline 		WTF is Going On With Gas Prices?
 
it shows the power of the Arab world..oil
They already said if it drops more, they reduce production to raise prices.
yay..
nothing to do with economics...

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 8:04:46 AM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
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From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline 		Gas prices plummeting right before an election the GOP looks to be losing? What a shock.

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 8:10:46 AM   
pahunkboy


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Jail?  are you kidding?  these folks OWN us. your azz, my azz.   never bite the hand of the master.   (gags)

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RE: WTF is Going On With Gas Prices? - 10/31/2008 9:33:58 AM   
faerytattoodgirl


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Lucylastic

I just saw on tv that gas here in Toronto is down to 90 cents a litre, and our election was two weeks ago:) but our prices are lousy anyway.
Lucy



90 cents x 4 litre = $3.60 a gallon



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