After going as low as $90/barrel over the past week, Oil spiked back up to $102 this morning!

Yup, all of us prius drivers love to pay more for our gas....GET A CLUE!!!

Expensive oil doesnt just screw the "evil" suv owners, it screws us all

Go move to europe if you want expensive, overtaxed fuel.

I want cheap gas for my prius and my (gasp) suv too


idiots

 

If anybody doubted that pure futures speculation was driving oil and gas prices, doubt no more. I've heard it said that the big financial companies had invested heavily in oil futures, driving prices up, in order to recoup some of their mortgage foreclosure losses. Somebody realized that $140 a barrel oil was going to bankrupt us, so that seems to have stopped.

The gas problem isn't supply and demand--it's investors buying oil futures, betting the price will go up. Washington created the problem in 2000, removing restrictions on buying oil futures without buying oil--and now they have to correct it by restoring those restrictions. That is, after the Republicans stop stonewalling with their demands for more off-shore drilling--a red herring.

 

I think the reason why oil reached $148 and then started falling was because of demand destruction. At those prices, it wrecked the summer driving season. People here in the U.S. actually drove billions of miles less this summer than they did last year.

When that happened, all those futures contracts bought at $148/barrel in June now couldn't be unloaded at those prices, because the refiners don't need to buy more crude-- They had a glut of refined gasoline that couldn't be sold fast enough since people were cutting back on driving. So when they rolled the futures contract into the next month, they had no choice but to drop the price of the futures contracts.

The Chinese cutting their government-funded oil subsidies (which had kept their gasoline prices artificially cheap) helped destroy some demand there too. The Olympics helped too, since the Chinese government banned driving on alternate days to clear up their infamous smog. A few other Asian countries like Taiwan, Malaysia and Singaport also got rid of their oil subsidies altogether.

I think here in the U.S. we should also be doing the same. Get rid of the tax breaks for the major integrated oil and gas companies, and we well see more demand destruction that will push oil down past $50 a barrel.

 

good point, Funny how we have had an(approx) 10-35% reduction in the price of crude oil, yet most american consumers havent seen more than a 15-20% (again aprox) drop in gas prices....what goes up sure comes down slowly

 

Gas prices have went up here..
When the price of crude goes up they blame it on that, when it comes back down they look for something else to blame it on..

 

I think it's fair to say that no-one wants expensive gas. If pricing drops to former levels, however, the pendulum will swing back to cheap gas, more gas guzzlers, more consumption, and another cyclical increase in pricing. Not to mention stifling the development on new technologies, not just for hybrid/electric vehicles, but also for other alternative power sources. They will simply be no economic incentive and we'll find ourselves right back here again in a few years.

However, with the emerging middle class in Asia and their understandable desire to live an "American" life, I don't see prices going down very far and we as a planet will NEED to innovate. I'm totally with Thomas Friedman here.

 

Heck, I'm surprised it only went up by $6 a barrel today..

Considering that the U.S. Treasury just printed $90 BILLION American Pesos in the past week to bail out the banks with bad mortgages, you'd think inflation would have gone through the roof... And inflation always means higher commodity prices (oil, gold, corn, etc.)

 

I am still smiling. I haven't even had to go in my Prius to the gas station yet during this latest surge. For once in my life I think I did something right buying this beautiful little car.

 

Re: After going as low as $90/barrel over the past week, Oil spiked back up to $110 this morning!

just topped $110!

 

Oil is a global market. Gasoline is a local market. The cost of oil is just one factor in the price of gasoline.

A lot of our gasoline comes from Gulf Coast. A hurricane slamming through there won't have much of an effect on global oil prices, but will really mess up the US gasoline market. There are other local effects on the gasoline market, such as US demand and seasonal formula changes for pollution control.

 

Above $116 !!!

$116 and going up!!!

 

got above $130

hedge funds trying to cover as it topped $130.
a 20% move in one day of trading!!! unheard of...
big oil traders got caught in a squeeze on the last day of Oct trading.


on edit...closed at $122.60 (+$18, a new record for a one day increase)