Quote Originally Posted by desslock View Post
Well I'll comment on your original message. My first question is why are you obsessed with gasoline? I would suggest that you pull back a wee bit. The fact is that ALL commodities cost a lot mo' money now.

Look at the price of an ounce of gold. Yahoo shows it at around $663 an ounce. Five years ago, the same lump of metal cost around $300. Same with gas - a barrel today costs lots more than five years ago.

All commodities cost a lot more today.

Simply put, prices of things are information.

Using that information, my conclusion is that inflation is a potential problem. That's probably the biggest problem now with the economy. That would mean there's too much money floating around out there, and unfortunately I'm not sure that the FED will respond by slurping money out of the money supply.

But you do have you finger on a good point --- prices of oil and gas are telling us something.

Steve
yeah well - I guess that I'm obsessed over oil because that's what makes the world go round - but more so, we also have foreclosures at record highs, a major housing slump, etc, etc - not a pretty picture for a lot of people

I think that average consumers will ultimately spend less on disposables and only buy what is necessary, often looking for cheaper, bigger volumes and/or free offerings - those who have, will always spend (and those who we are after)

the good news is that congress is finally doing something about the banking industry and is beginning to tackle the problems with credit card finance charges and out of control fees which are misleading and confusing to consumers at best - congress is also looking into the same for business owners who are also being raked over the coals by the credit card companies

truly a highly charged period of time for consumers and voters alike - no pun intended... my 3¢