Gas Price Surge May Stall Recovery

[Purveyor]

Source: CNN Money

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The rising price of gasoline is putting pressure on cash-strapped motorists and throwing barricades into the path of a speedy economic recovery.

The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas edged up to $2.488 on Saturday, from $2.467 the day before, according to motorist group AAA.

That marks the 32nd consecutive increase. In that one-month period, the average price of gas jumped more than 20%.

That surge is causing concern for drivers as the summer driving season gets underway.
0:00 /2:24Summer pump jump

Americans are already dealing with high unemployment and a collapsing housing market. If gas prices continue to climb at their heady rates, Americans who are living "paycheck to paycheck" could put the brakes on their plans to tool around this summer, crimping some of the government's efforts to pull the economy out of recession, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/29/news/economy/gas_price/index.htm?section=money_mostpopular

[dipsydoodle]

1. Life's a bitch.................

try paying $5.76 / US gallon in the UK. If the price is an issue consider getting a car with better fuel consumption - European diesels are good as you maybe are about to learn from Fiat.

[Mari333]

4. yeah but Id be willing to pay higher gas prices if

I knew my taxes were going to pay for health care and social services for my country's citizenry.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Don't quite work like that

Gross government receipts by way tax in the form of NHS payments to fund health and state pensions etc must approximate to c. 20% of our entire national wages.

It was that account which was plundered to fund the war in Iraq - thank you very much Mr Chimp.

BTW - our fuel is subject to 15% vat............ something being discussed over your side I believe .

[Mari333]

27. I was wondering about that

thanks for the info..!!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Byeah.... we'll do it by fiat! n/t

[dipsydoodle]

14. Very clever

:rofl:

[Retired AF Dem]

20. It's been awhile since I've been in Europe

Most of the time diesel is normally much higher in price here in the States than regular gas. As a side note I would never buy a Fix It Again Tony.

[Old Hob]

28. most of the towns in Europe are close enough to ride a bike to.

When I lived in Texas, I had to commute 70 miles/day to get to work and it was bumper to bumper traffic that would ge going 70 mph at one point and come to a dead stop the next. I commuted 100 miles/day to go to college my freshman year. Tiny little eco cars don't fare as well on American highways as they do on European highways because we're driving further and we have to share the road with 18 wheelers that make a real mess out of compact car drivers. We could cut the weight down on our cars by 1,000 lbs, lower the drag coefficient on everything, and employ a few changes in our fossil fuel engines and easily make 40 mpg average but it will come at a cost which will be measured in lives as well as dollars. I know there are reports that say otherwise but I've been around long enough to know that a 3,000 lb corvette doesn't do as well in an accident as a 4,000 lb Cadillac. I believe the Wankel rotary engine needs to be looked at again due to its ability to burn multiple hydrocarbon type fuels. I believe Detroit killed the Wankel way back when.

[WriteDown]

29. Why didn't you just live closer to your office?

I'm in Dallas an live about 5 miles from my office.

[Old Hob]

54. sometimes you have to do what you have to do especially in this job/housing market.

[WriteDown]

60. Oookay?

But in Europe, people choose to live closer to their offices and closer to cities. That is what makes their lifestyles possible. I chose to move closer to my office so I wouldn't have to commute and they are opening a light rail about 3 blocks from my house.

[Old Hob]

61. I don't think they choose anything. That's just the nature of things there.

Things are closer together because the area is smaller; hence, the need to regularly commute long distances does not exist. And, as I already explained, moving in America isn't always a choice. maybe for renters but I own a house. I can't sell it; therefore, I can't move. I'm happy for you and your light rail. I hope the crime rate has gone down in Dallas since I moved out of Texas.

[WriteDown]

62. But obviously..

You chose to build your house away from a major city for some reason. You mentioned the crime rate (which still is terrible in Dallas). Unless people are willing to make sacrifices and actually move to the cities than you will never have a European lifestyle. In Germany, its not uncommon for many generations of a family to live in the same house over the years since buying new property is very difficult. I've found very few in the States that would actually embrace that lifestyle. American's want their cake and eat it too.

[Old Hob]

64. .....

When I bought my house, we were in a housing boom. I could have sold it and made a profit a couple of years ago and moved anywhere (if I wanted to which I don't). That's not an option now. Not for me and not for a lot of people. The housing market crash is locking people into their homes and situations. The only way out for most is to lose their job and get foreclosed on or accept losing thousands of dollars when you are forced to sell for less than you owe. Setting all that aside for a moment however, this is America and we have an American lifestyle, not a European lifestyle. that was my point. What works for europeans doesn't necessarily work for Americans, like teeny tiny little commuter cars on our freeways for example. If you'll now excuse me, I have to get ready to go to work... 20 miles away.

[pattmarty]

32. I believe Mazda has the "Wankel", although they call it by it's generic.........

.....name; rotary. What is needed is for a whole new way of propulsion, away from the internal combustion engine. If say in the early 70's when we had the first "gas shock" we started our scientists on a road to find a new system, we might be well on our way to having one, or maybe even have one now. BUT, the US is so short sighted on many, many things that we now are at where the UK was in the 60's and early 70's, a over grown, over blown AND BROKE imperialist country. Didn't mean to get off track, but couldn't help myself.

[Old Hob]

55. not sure if the mazda rotary has the same fuel flexibility as the Wankel though?

do you know? I would love to see cars running on hydrogen (if it were safe and could be obtained cheaply) or plug in electrics running off of a wind/solar grid. I think a motor that could run on anything combustible would be a good baby step in the right direction for now. I'd be happy with it personally anyways.

[pattmarty]

59. Why does "fuel" have to be "combustible"? I would like to see.............

...........something akin to the Apollo project to put a man on the moon by the US to make a vehicle that would not have to "burn" a fuel. As far as the rotary engine I have limited knowledge of the workings of the engine, but ANY current internal combustion engine can be made into a "flex fuel" engine with modifications. I love cars. I grew up with muscle cars, but that era is definitely over as I believe so is the internal combustion engine era. Pretty soon (40 yrs?) everybody on the fucking planet will have a car and with pollution, running out of combustible fuels and such, we need REAL alternative modes to power our "vehicles".

[Old Hob]

63. I would like to see world peace and I want to see death abolished.

I'm never gonna see either one of them though. A Wankel can run on just about anything. I've heard you can pour cheap perfume into them and they'll burn it just fine. They're one of the few engines capable of running on hydrogen currently. What's more, you can pull up to a pump on tuesday and fill up with gasoline then, next thursday, you can fill up with hydrogen, saturday you can fill up with propane, etc. Typical flex fuel cars aren't anywhere near that flexible to my knowledge. Producing power requires energy and that means consuming some kind of energy source somewhere. There is no free lunch with regards to energy. You want electric cars? You're gonna burn coal to produce the electricity or you're going to have to create lots and lots of nuclear waste and deal with the risks associated with fission reactors. No free lunches in this universe. not anywhere. not ever.

[pattmarty]

65. If you READ my (2) responses, you will see I am not a.............

...........tin foil specialist advocating "free lunches" type of energy, sport. What, 130 yrs ago when there was the horse and buggy NOBODY ever would have believed of "flying machines" taking thousands of people across the US daily. It's all in the R&D, if we had the money and the balls to really do it.

[ProudDad]

47. Or we could restructure

our living spaces that 'evolved' to accommodate the automobile, not the other way around.

www.transitionus.org

[Old Hob]

69. The fact remains, America has a lot of space which means places are farther away from one another

than in Europe so regardless of what you do, the European lifestyle model will be inapproriate for America. And, frankly, the idea of "restructuring our living spaces" sounds a lot like concentrating people in cities which sounds a lot like working towards a lower of standard of living for for most Americans and, IMO, that's what this whole argument is all about, the standard of living in America versus "other" countries. We have, historically, enjoyed a high standard of living. I've watched it deteriorate in many aspects over the past couple of decades. It started with NAFTA IMO and it is currently manifested as our "race to the bottom". I'm sorry but I'm not willing to accept a lower standard of living as any kind of solution to America's problems and especially not under the circumstances by which it is being forced down our throats by the plutocratic entities that would turn all the world into their slave plantation if they had their way. just my two cents worth anyways.

[skepticscott]

31. If only

Every time I travel in Europe, I curse the fact that people over there can buy lots of small, fuel efficient vehicles (diesel and otherwise) that aren't available at all over here, even though some are made by American manufacturers. I would kill to be able to buy a Volvo C30 diesel and get 50+ mpg...with luck, that might happen soon, though.

[AndyTiedye]

36. We Were Paying Close to That in California Last Year

and we don't have anything like the British public transportation system to fall back on.
Even with the effects of privatization, you have far more transit than we do.

We are not allowed to purchase those diesels due to pollution regulations.

People are still buying hybrids here (about the only cars thar are selling at all).

We need better transit here. We can put a lot of people to work building that.

[Mari333]

2. our small tourist town was counting on low gas prices

hoping that people would vacation here by driving shorter distances from the larger cities around us. but a new study is showing, on milive news, that the area is being hit by higher gas prices, and the tourism is going to be down significantly. that is the ONLY source of revenue left for the town.

[Abq_Sarah]

24. Many towns absolutely depend on tourism

And that is impacted by gas prices. The people waving their arms and claiming they'd just LOVE to pay higher gas prices obviously don't own businesses that are hurt by rising prices. We still haven't recovered from last year's run up.

[PeteytehMawnstar]

3. My spidersense is tingling,

I don't know, and I'm no expert, but could it be (gasp) the inflation monster is a coming. I was wondering with and how much oil will go up before the "news" stops giving wall street the verbal pick me up. We'll just have to see how high it goes, but i don't think it has anything to do with growth, not here or asia.

[AndyA]

5. Yes, and I've read there's no legitimate reason for gas to be going up.

Overall, driving is still down. Reserves are higher than they've been in a long time...in fact, they're running out of places to store oil, so supply and demand isn't responsible.

No, once again, I suspect speculators are driving the price up. And where is Congress on this? What are they doing? Are they going to allow oil and high gas prices to contribute--once again--to financial hardships for consumers who are just barely getting by, if they're getting by at all?

Congress has had plenty of time to do something about this. I guess Congress is also owned by the oil companies...as well as the pharma companies...big banks...oh hell, it seems Congress is just full of whores for whoever has the most money.

Fire 'em all, get some new ones in who will do their job!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Sure there is, first put it in the toilet for the incoming POTUS, the

keep it there when he pisses off your vested interests.

[natrat]

66. yea and what vested interests has he remotely annoyed

motherfucker is on his knees in front of said vested interests

[aggiesal]

16. Check out the following story ...

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has asked the federal futures market regulator to crack down on speculators whom he blamed for pushing up crude oil and gasoline prices.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/05/29/us/politics/politics-us-cftc-oil-speculators.html?_r=2

I'm sure that some other senator that is in Big Oil's pocket will try to kill this somehow.

[LiberalFighter]

23. Shoot the speculators. Hang em at noon. Send them to the guillotine. Waterboard the hell out of them

I guess I must not like those speculators.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. Thank goodness someone saw what was happening

and is attempting to make a preemptive move to halt it before it goes out of control. It would be nice if more members of Bernie's committee would get out there and start making some noise so they can nip these greedy bastards in the bud.

I wouldn't be surprised if a certain disfunctional Governor in a state not in the lower 48, is pushing for these higher prices in order to go back to dishing out "royalties" to buy off votes in her state.

[melm00se]

58. yes, there are 2

1) inflation, from all the government and federal reserve spending, is starting it's upward trend (this is what happens when the monetary supply increases faster than the economy).

2) the weakening dollar - the high deficits are scaring foreign investors and either interest rates increase to compensate or the dollar's value drops. Now, seeing that the oil market is international, if the dollar is worth less today than it was a week ago, you have to spend more $'s to buy the same amount of oil.

Deficit spending to resolve a recession can work, but the piper must be paid and these are but 2 ways.

[merwin]

68. Gas skyrockets this time EVERY year. Aside from

a few exceptions, the rise and fall of gas prices us each year is completely predictable and fixed. However, the dumbfucks in the news divisions fail to notice the trend. It is not at all supply and demand based. It is based on how much they think they can get out of us each summer and who is running for re-election in the fall.

[MADem]

6. It's the summer ripoff, er, driving, season!!!

This is a time when the "gas people" make a big killing.

[AndyTiedye]

38. This Tanker Thing Makes Me Think Prices Will Come Crashing Down by Midsummer

Keeping product off the market on tankers only works for so long. You run out of tankers.
When those tankers come to shore prices are gonna drop, fast.

[bemildred]

43. Yeah, it's going to be a short bubble this time.

Ponzi schemes need lots of suckers.

[MADem]

45. Chickens do come home to roost! nt

[firedupdem]

9. I finally get a job and now this shit. I'll be using half my check

to pay for the gas! What the hell? Give us a break please!!!!

[rucky]

10. Whew! That was close. We were almost starting a recovery, there.

[AllentownJake]

11. Good thing we took care of that price gouging we experience last year

I'm so glad our Congress passed regulation with teeth and strong enforcement to prevent the oil companies from gouging consumers every summer....oh wait, they didn't.

[Mithreal]

12. The money we gave the banks is being used to speculate on oil.

On Thom Hartmann this past week Ravi Batra discussed this.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

15. +1

and the road goes on forever and the party never ends :eyes:

[Old Hob]

19. That's how bankers repay taxpayers for saving their worthless hides, they drive our gas prices up.

Similar to the way in which GM repays us by declaring bankruptcy and moving operations over to China.
typo

[benld74]

17. speculators, hedge funds, bypassing the SEC once more, will we NEVER learn?

[Auggie]

21. Aren't they in control of Congress?

[xchrom]

18. recommend

[Wizard777]

22. YA THINK.

:banghead:

We should increase their taxes by 20% for every percent they artificially increase the price of gas. If I were Obama I would increase scrutiny of their tracking of their own reserves. So they don't lose several billion gallons of oil in their own holds. Like they did to Carter to get Reagan/Bush elected. Yes the oil companies will perpetuate fraud and treachery against the POTUS. The multinational corporations only loyalty is to their own bottom line. That's it!

[depakid]

25. That was predictable

In fact, some of took it as a given.

[Gregorian]

26. The price of gas should not be measured by dollars, but by war and global warming.

By that standard the price cannot be high enough.

Both liberal and conservative alike are extremely offended by any mention of limits upon glorious gasoline. But consider that we've been living far far above any reasonable level for far too long.

This doesn't mean we have to live in caves. We just have to realize and practice limits. Something we modern people have not had to do.

[skepticscott]

30. You make a good point

and if the higher cost of gas forces people to think hard about their driving and car-buying habits, over the long term, that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering that oil is a limited resource that may have already reached its peak of production capacity. I'd wager that only a small minority of drivers in this country are as economical with gas as they could be..we have a very long way to go in that regard. Not to mention that too many people are, as you point out, extremely self-indulgent and short sighted when it comes to economizing. When the price of gas dropped after last summer, sales of gas guzzling SUVs and trucks went right back up, even though every sensible person knew that gas prices were going to spike again when this summer rolled around.

The other side of that, however, is that the price of fuel hits people's pocketbooks in many ways other than just the cost of gas for their personal vehicles. Higher fuel prices drive up the cost of everything that get shipped by car, truck or plane (in other words, just about everything), and you can only economize so much on some of those things, especially food. I fear very much that when gas hits 4 bucks a gallon again this summer, any small recovery in the economy is going to be smacked down hard.

[progressivebydesign]

33. Ah yes.. once again the greedy traders are screwing us over.

What happened to the efforts to STOP this insane trading of oil? Does anyone remember when all of this happened and we hit over $100 per barrel for no other reason that pure greed and speculation? There was supposed to be some new laws and rules to stop the virtual trades that precipitated this scenario. See, many many corporations from hospitals to hotels decided that the get-rich scheme was now speculating in oil. They'd purchase stockpiles of it and hold it until the prices rose... and some of that activity actually led to the mortgage fall out, as well because these corps decided that it was more lucrative to deal in oil than backing mortgage bonds, etc. Something has to be done to clean up that industry NOW. The traders are once again going to fuck us over like they did before.

The oil assholes are out of the White House. Time for some meaningful ass-kicking to stop this from happening again.

[martymar64]

34. Time to impose a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.

eom

[IndianaGreen]

35. Gas prices are disproportionately high compared to oil prices and supplies

The same speculators that drove gas prices to over $4 a gallon last year are at it again. The Obama Administration must investigate these pirates!

[The Wizard]

39. Shoot them

Shoot them all.

[knitter4democracy]

37. $2.759 here this weekend. I'm putting off most errands.

I've been driving differently lately anyways, but I've seen how the upwards climb in gas has been eating away at my budget. So, I'm cutting back everywhere, spending, driving, you name it.

[shaniqua6392]

40. It is up to $2.75 a gallon here in SE Michigan now.

We were paying $1.99 a few months ago but it just keeps jumping up and up. We have already canceled most of our trips up north this summer. We are going to take a short trip in June and then that is it for the rest of the summer. We usually go up several weekends per summer, but not this year.

[bemildred]

42. Hey, it's the "Free Market"(tm), it must be good. nt

[totodeinhere]

44. It was $4.60 here last summer. Now it's $2.38. That's up from a low of $1.53 last winter.

That's in Elko, Nevada. Of course nobody likes rising gas prices, but I doubt if it will get near last summer's exorbitant rates for a while. Let's hope so at least.

[ProudDad]

46. Peak Oil

Heard of it?

It's here...

http://www.peakoil.org/

As supply goes down, and demand continues to rise, price goes up.

www.transitionus.org

[ProudDad]

48. Do we really need one car per person?

www.transitionus.org

[ProudDad]

49. We could restructure our environment

relocalize, reskill, repurpose.

Build a better, more humane "life style" in harmony with the natural environment.

www.transitionus.org

we don't have to continue to genuflect at the alter of the internal combustion engine and its boosters in the oil industry and Congress.

[madrchsod]

50. back in the old days the president of the usa would get on the teevee

and call out the bastards who are running up the price of commodities


why is`t diesel fuel going up?...no demand.

[MilesColtrane]

51. If we were going to nationalize ANY companies,...

...it should have been the oil companies.

[sarcasmo]

52. Speculators at it again.

[workinclasszero]

53. The damned speculators are still in control

America can go to hell for all they care and their leader Limpballs is laughing all the way to the bank!

Now watch them destroy health care. Can't anybody stop the capitalist/ wall street destroyers?

[BreweryYardRat]

56. Said it before, I'll say it again.

Speculation on commodities people need to survive: food, water, gas (at least in the US), etc...ought to have a 10-year MINIMUM sentence.

[Triana]

57. I'm sure Exxon-Mobil is just broken up about that...

...Pfft.

[conspirator]

67. Nationalize the fucks nt

[AngryAmish]

70. I blame Bush

[daleo]

71. Peak oil

It doesn't respect economic downturns.