Tony's Rant on Gas Prices (again)

[CamCruise]

Here in Allentown Pennsylvania gas is $4.09 for unleaded.

Secondly, my boss... JJ has had his house up for sale for 78 days now. It's a nice 3 bedroom condo townhouse. It started at $192,000. He's been sitting on it for a while now and now it's been lowered to $189,900.
Fortunately, his house is in a 300 unit development. There were a total of 8 houses on the market at the begining of this month. Last week there were 4 closings in the same week. So now there are only 4 houses up for sale including JJ's.
So it appears to me the economy is not getting any better.

However, with all of that said I am happy to report that our DVD Sales are up 60%, and our memberships are up 30% (these figures are from last year).
So we are noticing a great profit margin here... it's just it's being lost at the gas pumps and lowering of the house sale price.

Yes we are doing good as well. But when times are hard bars and porn always pick up.
People are looking to escape all the shit thats going on.

[derekt]

Very well said! We actually came to that exact statement earlier in the week, I cannot recall who I was speaking with but we spoke about that. Glad someone agree's :cheekymonkey:

[JamesXR]

Rather than doom and gloom, it looks like we're finally going to cut our gasoline use nation wide. Even though I'll now be spending over $2000 a year on gasoline it doesn't yet make economic sense for me to trade in the Buick for a Prius and cut that in half. Hopefully I can squeak by in the Buick till they start rolling out electric cars with lithium ion car batteries. I think Nissan and some others are planning that. Screw plugin hybrids, I don't need a gas tank and a little engine taking up space I could be using for more batteries. Until then my fuel inefficiency will be exacerbating supply problems, keeping gas expensive, and forcing more new car buyers to decide against buying a truck. I do what I can.

[CamCruise]

Dow hits 3 month low, as crude prices jump.

Are we anywhere near the end of this roller coaster ride?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/20/mark...ion=2008062018

[hotboyluke]

$4.46 for regular here in Chicago

[CamCruise]

Energy consumption expected to jump 50% by 2030; greenhouse gases will see similar rise. Oil prices seen ranging from $113 to $186 a barrel.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/25/news...ion=2008062512

[hotboyluke]

Well some of the reason the price of gas per barrel is so high is because the dollar is a lot weaker than it was.

[JamesXR]

On a positive note, my latest economist quotes GE as saying that they expect something like 15% of our power to come from wind by 2020. Within a few years solar power will likely as cheap or cheaper than natural gas power. Many companies are working on next generation lithium ion car batteries that may allow 200-300 mile ranges and 5 minute recharges, thus decoupling our transportation costs from the price of oil.

On another positive note, my dad recently signed up to lease solar panels for his house. No money down, and the payments are cheaper than the electricity that they're replacing, so he'll actually be spending less per month on electricity. Let me put that in a more basic equation. Upfront cost waived, solar panels, lower total cost of electricity, right now. I believe that solar city is the company that does it.

Given cheap solar power and a future of cars that run on electricity and I'm optimistic.