Can the Economy Survive $200-a-Barrel Oil?

$200 oil

What we should do is increase everything we export to the oil producing nations by 1000% and stop giving them foreign aid.

Charles of AZ @ Feb 10, 2009 22:27:40 PM

Price of oil High Peaks

High peaks of oil prices. Hurt the economy. We are in a recession. Alternative fuels should be the high priority.

THe Arabs will really be hurting if America does not use fossill fuel for their cars.

Detroit is still pushing the gas guzzlers. I wonder who is buying them, with so many people out of work.

THE END!

Robert of OH @ Nov 11, 2008 16:45:19 PM

“Oil Shock”

Even as the Economy Reels, a Golden Opportunity is at Hand

For more than a year the U.S. economy has been reeling from the housing and credit crises, but now it’s staggering from the blow of rising energy and food prices. The impact of $4-a-gallon gasoline is rippling outward as Americans cut spending of all sorts. Every month it seems as if another major economic sector hits the skids: first it was housing and construction, then automobiles and airlines, then tourism and, finally, back to housing with the implosion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

What ties all these crises together is cheap energy, which drove years of suburban sprawl, SUV sales and big-box consumption. That’s all in the past, however. The United States consumes 12.4 million barrels of imported oil products a day. At $140 a barrel, that comes to $633 billion a year — a huge transfer of wealth to oil companies and oil-producing countries and four times the annual cost of the Iraq War.

Oil prices have surged six-fold since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But with the housing sector on fire and profits robust, consumers and businesses were able to absorb the costs. Not anymore. In June, consumer prices rose 1.1 percent nationally and 1.2 percent in the New York region. Also in June, the producer price index, the inflation rate for businesses, rose an astonishing 1.8 percent. The inflationary effects are being passed through the commodity chain in price increases and job losses.

To view the rest of this article, see http://www.indypendent.org/2008/07/19/oil-shock/

anonymous of NY @ Aug 04, 2008 16:41:16 PM

oil and such

What a cluster**** this world has become. drilling now would give real relief in 5 to 8 years. thats how long it takes to survey,study, and implement the proccess of getting oil to the pump.maybe quicker if a mannahtan project mentality prevailed.Oil,water, food, education,funky weather, healthcare,stupid tax system,lovely crime,greedy corpulent speculators,credit crisis,airline woes, dollar plummeting. Can you feel the western culture shrinking?

mike romine of FL @ Jul 11, 2008 11:43:00 AM

Last One

wrote "Here in the UK of what we pay for gas at the pump is 2/3 tax so effectively we already pay the equivalent of $300 a barrel for oil. The US consumer will have to get used to that sooner or later."

2/3 tax? No thanks, in the US we tend not to accept overtaxation as a way of life. We usually elect politicians who will not increase our taxes and grow the size of our inefficient government. You may well be right about us getting used to the higher price of oil, but it will not be because the government has made it even more expensive, but due to market conditions. Sounds to me like your country is screwing you and will be even more so as oil continues to rise. And in the name of what? Universal healthcare that will inevitably raise costs and decrease quality of healthcare? Creating sharia courts for muslims? For the state or so the royal family never has to work? No wonder people died in Spain over the oil riots and blockades. If it gets that bad here and the government is to blame, people here will lose their lives, or at least livelihood, in the chaos.

ATLCT of GA @ Jun 29, 2008 13:19:39 PM

Nice post

wrote "It's funny that humans think we're the only generation whose ever been around, or that we're the only friggin' species."

We are the only friggin species that has had 6 billion of us sucking all of the oil out of the ground at an ever-increasing pace. Oh wait, you're right, I was thinking we were the only species to do this, but the dinosaurs used oil for their dinocars, right?

The world is not millions of years old, it is billions of years old and oil has developed here over thousands and millions of years. In other words, it would take a long time for the world to produce more oil if we were to deplete it. I agree we should not be talking about doomsday, but skyrocketing oil prices and growing demand is very concerning for our oil-based economy. You're right, we can't stop nature, thats not whats being discussed, but we can make changes to a market that is way out of control by making smart moves right now.

ATLCT of GA @ Jun 29, 2008 12:57:55 PM

Rednecks

wrote "Automobile manufacturers need to quit making huge SUV's and TRUCKS for rednecks and napolean syndrome soccer moms."

As the resident redneck, I guess, I thought I would respond to your insinuation that rural people are somehow to blame for increased consumption. Most of the "rednecks" use their trucks either for hauling on unpaved roads (no trash service in the country) or other necessary reasons unlike those soccer moms, who do not need that huge SUV they are driving for their 1 or 2 kids. I live just outside the city (ATL), but most of my family are what you would call "rednecks". I see more SUVs driven here in the city by soccer moms, hispanics and blacks who don't really need them. Some may forget that in parts of the south, our lifestyles are such that we consume less in a number of ways. While city people are playing video games, surfing the web, and watching their oversized TV all day, country folks are out fishing, hunting, swimming in the lake (not a heated pool), playing golf or something else outdoors. You tell me which draws more power from the grid. In the evening, city people head out to the bar and watch the 40 HDTVs going non-stop at the bar amongst the neon lights while the country folks grab a couple of coolers and head out to the woods. There are so many ways that city people must reduce their consumption before you could ask a rural person to give up something that they actually need. It is blatant hypocrisy to make someone else change their life because you are unwilling to make the changes you need to make to reduce your consumption. I knew it just was a matter of time before the blame was put on "rednecks" for this. I still don't understand how so much redneck-bashing comes from people who are supposedly "tolerant" and "accepting of other cultures". Start researching alternatives for these trucks if you want, because if someone feels they need such a vehicle, who are you to say they can't have it?

ATLCT of GA @ Jun 29, 2008 12:46:22 PM

Speculation/Investors,,,

The thing I don't get is, anybody can invest in oil. Ok, they say speculators are hedging against inflation. Ok many of these speculators are Multi-Millionares and billionares, I know a few personally. I just don't understand their greedy little minds. It's ridiculous! Why are you hedging when you already have more than enough money to support hundreds of families for their lifetimes.

Like the guy said from TX, there's oil there, the pumps just ain't running. That's your government at work for you. They sure are bright,(NOT!), pricing Oil in the USD$

Foreign countries have stock-piled USD$ in their reserves for decades. Now when they want/need oil all they have to do is exchange their reserve USD$ for Oil. Our credit/housing market crisis gave/gives them the perfect oppportunity to buy all the Oil they want *Dollar weakness*, which inturn drives the cost of everything up for us. Not only in the U.S. but all over the globe, except for those countries who have huge reserves of USD$. Their prices aren't effected as much.

We could start pumping more of our own oil, it would make sense to save us American people money, but remember the great Politicians of our government wanted Oil priced in USD$. So pumping our own oil would make the oil price drop yes, BUT we could kiss our American currency goodbye cause the USD$ would drop like a ROCK from all the other nations with large reserves of the USD$ to dump them to buy the cheaper oil,

So what I see coming if Oil doesn't come back down around $100, SOON,, they'll inforce Capital Controls to save our greedy country USD$'s.

Chris of IN @ Jun 16, 2008 22:31:27 PM