Gas prices to find . . .
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Engineering first
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 5,613
From: Huntsville, AL
Gas prices to find . . .
Thanks to an article referenced at www.fueleconomy.gov:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gas-pr...-13948893.html
This morning on C-SPAN they were talking about a record drop in employment not seen since Reagan took office. But the pattern of costly oil followed by an oil glut was what we saw at in the 1979-1982 period. The huge drop in oil cost back then killing the energy independence programs of Carter.
Bob Wilson
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gas-pr...-13948893.html
. . .
During the campaign, Democrat Barack Obama vowed to spend $150 billion over 10 years to bring renewable energy technologies to market. Democrats pushed for an increase in research funding for alternate fuels and better efficiency. Republicans chanted "drill, baby, drill" and pushed for increased domestic drilling in offshore locations and the Alaskan Reserve to alleviate the dependence on overseas producers.
President Bush urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to churn out more oil in a bid to lower prices, but it refused. Energy experts and politicians lashed into oil speculators for artificially inflating the prices, blaming them for the meteoric rise.
Then, within months, as the economic crisis deepened, demand for oil slowed and gas prices plunged. OPEC ramped up production, but flooding the market with oil failed to halt the fall.
. . .
During the campaign, Democrat Barack Obama vowed to spend $150 billion over 10 years to bring renewable energy technologies to market. Democrats pushed for an increase in research funding for alternate fuels and better efficiency. Republicans chanted "drill, baby, drill" and pushed for increased domestic drilling in offshore locations and the Alaskan Reserve to alleviate the dependence on overseas producers.
President Bush urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to churn out more oil in a bid to lower prices, but it refused. Energy experts and politicians lashed into oil speculators for artificially inflating the prices, blaming them for the meteoric rise.
Then, within months, as the economic crisis deepened, demand for oil slowed and gas prices plunged. OPEC ramped up production, but flooding the market with oil failed to halt the fall.
. . .
Bob Wilson
Active Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 158
Re: Gas prices to find . . .
The way I see it:
It has been said before and said again that "those who cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat it".
People have been adding fat in every part of there lives for the past 2 decades. That diet of fat has been overly abundant access to credit.
Houses, cars and everything got bigger and more expensive and with bigger homes and cars came bigger monthly bills to fuel those extravagencies "no spell check". Money was easy to come by, even if the real income didn't meet the lifestyle choice of the person. Heck, just charge it or take a loan!
It appears that the credit sector just kept giving credit for the sake of increasing volume and not accounting for risk. Once the credit was out there it got used until depleted and not paid back fully. The right side of the balance sheet just didn't match the left side.
Demand for energy was still high in the beginning of the turmoil, so the consumer just kept paying whatever prices with whatever means of currency they had to the point they had nothing left to spend. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, repos just kept increasing.
No revenue for the businesses led to the obvious cost saving measures and that was to cut costs. The biggest savings usually comes from cutting jobs and that is what the companies did.
So people that did have a job to replenish there bank account every 2 weeks or so didn't have jobs to continue that revenue.
We started looking at our core needs again......Need to get a job! Scaledback travel, cut vacation. Trade in the guzzler for something that fits in a parking spot. Start evaluating home for space and efficiency. These are just a handful of the hundreds of lifestyle changes that folks are facing.
Energy costs are way down, because capacity is greater than demand at this point. I hope as a nation and later as a civilization take the steps to stabilize our energy demand and sources to maintain real financial predictability.
As a former employee of a company that starts with G and starts a new word with the letter E, I can attest the healthcare sector is having a hard time paying bills, financing capital equipment, and maintaining service costs. Profit profit profit has turned to predictability and sustainability. Buying other companies to capitalize on there technology only goes so far if the buying company does not continue to provide real research dollars for that acquired technology. Money cannot only line the pockets of the investor and management, but must line the benches of research scientists and engineers to develope better and improved technologies.
Once we get away from the "cheapest way right now for the biggest return right now" we will probably be able to grow sustainably and predictabily. Big rant, but the facts in this article brought out a little frustration of our societys short cited approach and inability to read history books and realize these economic events have actually occured in the past.
It has been said before and said again that "those who cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat it".
People have been adding fat in every part of there lives for the past 2 decades. That diet of fat has been overly abundant access to credit.
Houses, cars and everything got bigger and more expensive and with bigger homes and cars came bigger monthly bills to fuel those extravagencies "no spell check". Money was easy to come by, even if the real income didn't meet the lifestyle choice of the person. Heck, just charge it or take a loan!
It appears that the credit sector just kept giving credit for the sake of increasing volume and not accounting for risk. Once the credit was out there it got used until depleted and not paid back fully. The right side of the balance sheet just didn't match the left side.
Demand for energy was still high in the beginning of the turmoil, so the consumer just kept paying whatever prices with whatever means of currency they had to the point they had nothing left to spend. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, repos just kept increasing.
No revenue for the businesses led to the obvious cost saving measures and that was to cut costs. The biggest savings usually comes from cutting jobs and that is what the companies did.
So people that did have a job to replenish there bank account every 2 weeks or so didn't have jobs to continue that revenue.
We started looking at our core needs again......Need to get a job! Scaledback travel, cut vacation. Trade in the guzzler for something that fits in a parking spot. Start evaluating home for space and efficiency. These are just a handful of the hundreds of lifestyle changes that folks are facing.
Energy costs are way down, because capacity is greater than demand at this point. I hope as a nation and later as a civilization take the steps to stabilize our energy demand and sources to maintain real financial predictability.
As a former employee of a company that starts with G and starts a new word with the letter E, I can attest the healthcare sector is having a hard time paying bills, financing capital equipment, and maintaining service costs. Profit profit profit has turned to predictability and sustainability. Buying other companies to capitalize on there technology only goes so far if the buying company does not continue to provide real research dollars for that acquired technology. Money cannot only line the pockets of the investor and management, but must line the benches of research scientists and engineers to develope better and improved technologies.
Once we get away from the "cheapest way right now for the biggest return right now" we will probably be able to grow sustainably and predictabily. Big rant, but the facts in this article brought out a little frustration of our societys short cited approach and inability to read history books and realize these economic events have actually occured in the past.
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