^ What point are you trying to make?

11/21/2005 8:27:39 PM

Its just another pryderi attack on Bush, with a jab thrown in at big business.

[Edited on November 21, 2005 at 8:40 PM. Reason : 1]

11/21/2005 8:40:10 PM

meh

11/21/2005 10:01:27 PM

I was excited to see $2.01/g gas today, then I heard on the radio that the price is still $0.30 more per gallon over this time last year. No one is happy till it's free

11/21/2005 10:30:15 PM

Quote :

"No one is happy till it's free "

Very true. Nevertheless, gas is now about the price it was in March--significantly below the OMFG GAS PRICES WILL NEVER GO BELOW 3 DOLLARS EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KATRINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11/21/2005 10:59:46 PM

We've got to stop sucking on arab pipelines.

11/21/2005 11:48:25 PM

i hope i live until the oil runs out..cuz that would be the coolest apocolypse ever....or at least awesome riots with burning cars for those Amazing Video shows

11/21/2005 11:54:28 PM

I was in DC earlier today. The cheapest gas I saw was for $1.91 in Richmond. Then when I get to North Raleigh the gas is all $2.19. WTF is NC so expensive?

11/22/2005 12:08:50 AM

probably has a little thing to do w/ our percentage gas tax

11/22/2005 12:11:57 AM

patience, young sky-walker.

It is $2.03 here in Clayton.

11/22/2005 12:29:52 AM

Quote :

"I was in DC earlier today. The cheapest gas I saw was for $1.91 in Richmond. Then when I get to North Raleigh the gas is all $2.19. WTF is NC so expensive?"

Welcome to the past 3 or 4 months. NC is about $0.20/g higher than the national average.

11/22/2005 7:31:27 AM

Oh. So now that gas is down to around $2.00/gal., we can all just forget about putting any effort into hybrids and alternative fuel sources.

11/22/2005 7:33:09 AM

^I'm sure $3.299/g gas is still fresh on people's minds. I'm still driving as little as possible to recoup the loss during the great gulf gouge I don't think prices need to be high for people to start looking into alternative energy sources... or at least it will take them a bit longer to forget about the high prices, and by then the prices will be back up.

I'm sure the prices will be back up for next summer and even higher for the hurricane season. The need for alternative energy sources is and will be fresh on everyone's minds. Maybe they could build gigantic windmills along the gulf coast

11/22/2005 7:50:00 AM

if those earnings reports wouldn't have received so much press the prices would still be very high.

11/22/2005 8:42:43 AM

^ Now that is a conspiracy theory if I've ever heard one.

First, do you seriously believe a Republican Congress would punish oil companies for "too high profits!"? Fuck no, they can declare enormous profits from today to the next election, Republicans wouldn't do shit but humph and complain. As such, what do they have to fear from a lot of press?

Secondly, if the oil companies can raise the price whenever they want, why did they wait for an oil shortage to do so? Yes, they'd need an excuse, but why did they sit there in 2000, 2001, and 2002, losing money when they could have just raised prices arbitrarily?

An oil company always seeks to receive higher prices for what it sells. Therefore, the fact that the price falls regularly, independent of "press", implies they have very little control over their own prices and are in fact bullied into charging the market price for their products.

[Edited on November 22, 2005 at 9:09 AM. Reason : ,.,]

11/22/2005 9:05:08 AM

^ i disagree...oil companies are made up of republicans, and a replubican's dream is (in this order): make money, receive a tax break in order to keep said money, screw everyone else to make MORE money, appear "christian" so as not to alienate the people they screwed, and backpeddle as fast as possible when caught screwing everyone from behind

we wouldn't see gas at this price if they hadn't been caught in that last act...there's only so much an administration can do before people get sick of them

11/22/2005 9:35:17 AM

Quote :

" As such, what do they have to fear from a lot of press? "

There are elections every year. I wonder how many republican seats are up for reelection next year? People also have memories. If they sit back and do nothing you can rest assured that the democratic party will focus on the issue during the next presidential election. Now the question becomes "have they done anything". I don't know. They paraded the oil tycoons in front of everyone to answer for their actions. It all came across as a big PR move for future campaigns if you ask me.

Then again the gas prices do seem to be based more on press than anything. Hurricane froming off the coast of Africa? Prices go up before it hits. 10 billion in profits on the news? Gas prices go down.

Quote :

"Yes, they'd need an excuse, but why did they sit there in 2000, 2001, and 2002, losing money when they could have just raised prices arbitrarily?"

During the summer I got the sense that the oil companies were raising the prices a nickel a week to see how much they could get away with. I imagined them snickering and saying "I can't believe we can charge that!" with every raise. That was before the hurricanes (the biggest excuse yet) hit. Then all bets were off. I guess they could have done it in 2K, 2K1, 2K2, etc. Maybe they tried and maybe people wern't as willing to pay. Maybe they didn't try but if you are going to try you have to start some year and it just happened to be this year.

Quote :

"a replubican's dream is (in this order): make money, receive a tax break in order to keep said money, screw everyone else to make MORE money"

Well yeah, if they didn't screw people from making more money then there would be less for them to get ahold of

[Edited on November 22, 2005 at 9:37 AM. Reason : -]

11/22/2005 9:35:41 AM

Quote :

"WASHINGTON Nov 22, 2005 — Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford urged Congress Tuesday to offer a package of tax incentives to make the nation less dependent on foreign oil and to drive innovation in the struggling domestic auto industry. Ford, during a speech in Washington, urged Congress to "dramatically increase" tax credits for research and development of alternative vehicles and consider tax incentives to help American manufacturers modernize their plants. He also urged investments in training programs for American workers, the encouraging of consumers to buy fuel-saving vehicles and partnerships to build an infrastructure of gasoline stations offering ethanol."

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1337649

11/22/2005 5:01:53 PM

Quote :

"Now the question becomes "have they done anything". I don't know. They paraded the oil tycoons in front of everyone to answer for their actions. It all came across as a big PR move for future campaigns if you ask me."

It was just a PR move to quell the moderate voters. If they had done something they would have lost my vote. As such, the oil companies know the government isn't going to do shit. They knew they weren't going to do shit for the past decade. Yet you expect us to sit here and believe the most greedy people in the world (oil company execs) had the power to arbitrarily raise prices for 10 years and just didn't get around to it?!?!

Greed is greed, it doesn't wax and wane. The bastards are just as greedy today ($1.99) as they were two months ago ($3.29), four years ago ($1.29), and seven years ago ($0.89).

Tell me, if bad press made them lower prices for $3.29 to $1.99, then how much press did it take to lower prices to $0.89 a gallon back in 1998?

Or is it at least possible that all these economists are correct and the price of gasoline is predominantly determined by demand/supply imbalances?

[Edited on November 22, 2005 at 5:25 PM. Reason : ,.,]

11/22/2005 5:24:20 PM

Quote :

"EC 205 Fundamentals of Economics 3(3-0-0) F,S,Sum Credit will not be given for both EC 205 and either EC 201 or ARE 201. Credit will not be given for both EC 205 and EC 202 Fundamental ideas in economics: scarcity, substitution, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, gross domestic product, real and nominal magnitudes. Supply and demand analysis. Microeconomic analysis of pricing in competitive and noncompetitive markets. Macroeconomic analysis of production, employment, the price level, and inflation. Monetary and fiscal policy and the stabilization of the economy. Comparative advantage and international trade."

123 seats available in section 7 this spring.

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 9:48 AM. Reason : ]

11/23/2005 9:47:53 AM

how long can you store gasoline?

i.e., if i bought one of those 1000 gallon tanks like you see at old old gas stations, how long could i realistically hang on to that shit for?

11/23/2005 9:57:51 AM

oil and gas transcend the normalacy of ECON 205. or whatever economic take you try to place on it.

its an anomaly.

that being said, how does this supply and demand thing still fly? aren't we using more now, than we were say 2 months ago? the supply hasn't changed that drastaticly.

11/23/2005 12:12:06 PM

Quote :

"how long can you store gasoline?"

Gasoline does not store well. If you properly stabilize the gasoline (they sell stabilizer at Wal-Mart), I guestimate it could last for years, but over time it will break-down and become less and less like gasoline. As time pases, the octane rating of the fuel drops until it thwarts the compression cycle of your engine. After that you might still be able to use it as diesel fuel, but I suspect you might have been better off with diesel fuel to begin with.

11/23/2005 1:28:28 PM

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earns/index.htm?cnn=yes

b/c record profits look good to shareholders

1/30/2006 1:38:10 PM

^^true. even with stabilizers, i'd say less than 2 years. most rfgs (epa mandated for certain areas) have around 1mo. shelf life.

1/30/2006 2:55:56 PM

FYI:

We're about $0.60/g higher than we were at this time last year. Look for $4/g come summer.

And if you hear this man say "hurricane" so much as once...


You might as well take out a second mortgage.

2/1/2006 12:44:41 PM

You best be careful. In five-months SandSanta is going to owe me $100. As of January 31, the price of Gasoline on New York Harbor closed at $1.7258, less than it was when he made the bet.

Quote :

"New York Harbor Gasoline closed friday at $1.7387 a gallon. You are betting that on July 31, 2006 it will close at $2.7387 a gallon or higher. I would happily bet $100 against such as absurd statement. I would bet more, but I don't want to encourage you to skip out more than you probably already will."

2/1/2006 1:05:30 PM

Wow, what a stupid bet by SandSanta.

You guys are pretty shortsighted.

ps OPEC just announced that they will continue to sell 28 million barrels per day and that they are operating at 1 million barrels under capacity. Prices have spiked lately because of uncertainty about Iran, but OPEC said that there are no concerns about Iran's oil availability.

[Edited on February 2, 2006 at 1:16 AM. Reason : 2]

2/2/2006 1:12:11 AM