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You would think that I wouldn’t be in favor of such a commie idea as the “Cash for clunkers” program. And while I’m not ‘for’ it per se…it’s actually an effective policy for it’s kind. Here’s why. It’s temporary. It’s short term, and even if they make it long term it’s a whole lot easier [...]
So oil has been dropping lately. This could be due to several causes: Oil always drops this time of year, for various reasons. The dollar seems to be having some better days. Global and domestic demand is waning, especially in China. Global output has increased by a smidge. But I wouldn’t get our hopes up. [...]
Wanna know why Russia is attacking Georgia? Pipelines. Primarily the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Baku-Supsa Pipeline. Russia is setting itself up as the prime controller of Europe’s oil, and those Georgia pipelines are a problem. Go ahead, check out the map. It’s pretty obvious. Wait until the world is watching the Olympics. Bomb the snot [...]
In the beginning, God created the animals and the plants. Then he gave us a garden. Of course, humans messed that up. But we still had the Earth and its resources, even though it was going to be much more difficult to survive. Turns out, a great deal of these resources were those original animals [...]
No, this isn’t the title of a new, trendy youth service. This is my prediction of where things are going in regard to churches and ministries if the world energy situation re-aligns (which I think it is doing right now). In the future, I think groups of Christians will meet in a more distributed, local [...]
(HT to my brother in law, Ash, for the heads up on the link) Looks like Wilcox County Alabama is hit hardest by the gasoline price spike. Makes sense. Rural areas have lower incomes and longer drives. The windy, two lane roads are less efficient. They also rely more directly on gasoline for routine employment [...]
A friend of mine emailed me yesterday about the falling price of oil. It had “fallen” to $129/barrel. By the time I replied, it was back at $131. Here’s an interesting article about oil in the Wall Street Journal. Key points: The amount of overall petroleum exports by exporters is declining: 2.5% last year. This [...]
U.S. Capitialism is the idol and religion for 67.3% of our citizens. Ok, I made up that percentage. But I think we all agree that the financial success of our society, while a blessing, has also become the golden calf for quite a few of us. That makes it worthwhile to study it and where [...]
Oil went to a staggering $135+ dollars today. Remember that the inflation adjusted price from the late 70′s crisis is $104. But if the past doesn’t bother us, let’s think about the future. I think we’re getting a taste of what the future holds here. I know, I know. “falling dollar”….”speculation”….”price bubble”…”yadda yadda”. There are [...]
Oil’s flirting with a new record. For several weeks now, some friends have told me that “Oil is a big bubble that’s going to pop”, and “oil is headed back to $80 by summer”. This may be the case, but if those dreams come true it’s going to have to happen quickly. The things from [...]
From this analysis of the per gallon cost of gasoline: “It’s difficult to generalize; there’s a whole spectrum of [production] costs,” said Ron Planting, an economist with the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. They can range from $1 a barrel to produce crude in Saudi Arabia to over $70 a barrel to find, [...]
So another day, another record price for crude oil. It’s just below $110. Way above the adjusted price in the late 70′s. The difference is that this price is not driven by supply (for now at least). It’s driven by financials. Here it is in a nutshell. Lots of very rich people thought they could [...]
Interesting video reinforcing some of my beliefs about oil. Which are (in a nutshell): * We don’t understand the value of oil. The energy in a barrel of the stuff is worth far, far more than we realize. * Oil sands and other exotic forms of oil are expensive and impractical and will never replace [...]
Oil has been trading at record highs. By most accounts, it surpassed the inflation adjusted hights of ’79 and ’80. Yep, oil has never been more expensive during any of our lifetimes. Depending on who you believe, we’re headed for a collapse in prices (if $80 can be considered a collapse) or more record highs [...]
Foreclosures up 57%. Home prices fall by the largest margin on record. And all that lost home equity money is hurting home Depot, who saw an annual sales decline for the first time. Google in question. Oil still high. Friendly oil is going away and risking chaos over a large, shared border. Inflation posts biggest [...]
Everybody knows that Saudi Arabia is one of our biggest oil importers. But they are very secretive about their oil reserves. Aramco, the Saudi oil company, is a company wrapped in a government wrapped in a family. Kind of like Taco Bell’s latest offering, except with the same politics as thanksgiving dinner. But that’s a [...]
Check out India’s new $2500 car. I’d probably buy one of these for $2500, although they’d have to change the name. The good news is that it’s an environmentalists dream. 50 mpg. No A/C and those dangerous chemicals. The bad news is that India has well over a billion people and they’re all going to [...]
(BTW, saw this cool map of gas prices.) If anyone noticed, oil closed at a record high today….well over 99 bucks-a-barrel. One year ago prices were just under $65. 2 years ago it was around $42. 3 years: $33. These are unadjusted numbers, but the trend is pretty clear. Meanwhile…never fear. Congress has passed a [...]
So I watched this show last night. Overall, it was a decent introduction to the very possible oil crisis ready to hit…at any moment really. It covered all the bases, what “peak oil theory” is, the Historical U.S. dominance of oil–first as a producer, then as an importer and consumer. Why oil alternatives aren’t nearly [...]
As oil continues to climb, and the dollar continues to fall, I thought today’s CNBC banter was telling. They had a barrel on the set, and one fella was commenting that “to put $100 oil in perspective, a barrel of Starbucks coffee would be more than $600 per barrel.” They both had some happy-voice laughter [...]
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