There is a tsunami coming and we are missing the signals some one needs to wake up and fast.
“We just had a Half tank delivered and it was almost $500.00
my husband said if this continues I don’t know how we are
going to heat the house this winter”
“I am a member and know that I save on oil as a
result but the cost is still exorbitant. My oil bill for
2007 was $2600. That’s for one person in 4 1/2
rooms. I shudder at what it will be this year….filling
my oil tank was $784 for the month of March alone.
(I read an article recently that said oil prices are likely
to DOUBLE in the next three years. If that’s true, a lot
of us are going to be in real trouble (it’s sure a
disadvantage heat-wise to work in the home; I have
friends who work mostly out of the home and save
money by dropping their thermostats down to 55
degrees all day long)”
“I have been for several years. Got my estimate for next year’s monthly
heating bill, and it’s huge. I’m wondering if I should sign up or wait and
see what happens with the oil markets. Not a very comfortable place to be
given the current state of affairs.”
“Heating oil is about 4.29/gallon.”
“There’s a downturn in the prices today, may go back up in a couple weeks,and who knows what will happen during heating season”
Comments made on the Internet here in Eastern Massachusetts and on the streets of my neighborhood.
So the average home heating with oil heat has seen the 900-1200 gallons per season go from $801- $1068 dollars to $3861.00 -$5148.00 for just the Winter season Hello are you listening. Your wondering why your override went down in flames and why the electorate is up in arms over tax increases? How about this as a reason? And if oil continues to climb to $5.00 + a gallon ???
I don’t want to be-labor the obvious but, has our State and Federal governments gone Deaf Dumb and Blind?
We are seeing the forest but not seeing the trees in this case. City and towns and dear say even the state is facing tough economic times unable to pay for critical services and we are seeing overrides rise and fall by narrow and wide margins yet the threat which is facing us next fall and winter may make these issues seem trivial. Home heating costs are now approaching 10% of the average Gross Income of a family. 2007 income is posted at approximately $63,634 before taxes some sites have a slightly lower number and a very few have it slightly higher in the range of $61,000-$65,000 this is up from $56,000- 58,000 in 2002 when home heating fuel cost .89 a gallon the wage increase on $5,000 to $7,000 dollars in that 5 Years will see almost ½ go to just home heating and the balance will be left for Gas for the car, Food price increases, inflation in goods and services and property tax increases and did catch the phrase this was before taxes so Federal, social security, Medicaid and State taxes and fees. Regardless of your politics this is a crisis, which will threaten this area on the same scale as Katrina and the host of Natural disasters we have seen around the world since. Fortunately we have the knowledge of a long lead-time 4 Months before it starts; yet will that be enough time to get ready and address the issue or will we have to wait and hold on and see how long it takes for someone anyone to realize it is a crisis.
Will we see families and Seniors faced with real choices between heat and hot water and food and medicine. What will happen to homes who’s pipes burst in January from a lack of heat will it take the first senior found to have passed in their home wrapped in their blankets from Hypothermia. Some one has to wake up and do it fast.
As Usual just my opinions
Edward R. Quinn
So…what exactly is it that you want people to “do…fast?”
that looks at the ability of government to control hyper inflation for starters
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p>As Usual just my Opinions
Would you then offer yours or enter into the debate or dialogue lets hear your ideas I opened the box.
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p>??????????????
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p>As Usual just my Opinons
In Great Britain, you cannot build a new residential dwelling that does not contain a solar roof and solar water heater.
Funded by increases in gas taxes and parking (this would require a state law, and not go town-by-town).
what type of policies did you have in mind? Are there any being discussed/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…
http://www.informationclearing…
Not just oil massive monetary reform.
http://www.richardccook.com/ar…
That the high price of oil is being driven by the wild eyed investment class looking to recover from the middle class the pound of flesh they lost out on in the collapse of the Mortgage bond bubble. No way I will say I was wondering what all those high rollers selling contracts were doing these days.
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p>You don’t think they are fabricating stories about $200 a barrel oil and then on the phones the next day barking
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p>”Get in now before it’s to late and you miss the latest wave the sky’s the limit your $128 dollars will pay $200 in 15 months” to boot you only have to put down $8 a contract and I collect $6 of that so my commercial bank stays afloat and you recover some of your losses” We are back in business baby daddy’s buying a new Yacht! Happy days in New York!!
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p>Well maybe just maybe we will see the man behind the curtain before more people get hurt and clamp down on this wild speculation. You know everyone is talking a gas tax increase will help us to change our driving habits so we conserve more and help pay for the roads same as we are using the Cig Tax to cut down on smokers. Which is not a bad idea because oil will not last forever but how about a whopping big tax increase for the wild eyed speculators and the used oil contract sales men to stop the stupidity that has the world swinging from one frenzy to another.
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p>My suggestion is a broad based wind fall profits tax on speculation driven profits and the tax is returned to the very people the profits are collected from less 5% for Government administration of course and look toward 3% growth in the world economy not 50% for the limited few and the crumbs for the rest.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
… on Oil and Speculation
Lets look at the last 27 years back in the 80’s when you had a host of PC start ups that had venture capital dumped in looking for the quick gold mine hit then on to the Dot Com disaster and now the housing mortgage bundling meltdown. All were fed by big dollars chasing after the next Microsoft or so they thought. The Markets (many different ones Dow, NASDAQ, Bonds…) have all fallen victim to the big dollars chasing a dream but who really pays the freight you and I. Look at it from Unemployment and the social network that had to run in to save families how about the bank failures remember the S&L crisis, Lets look at Bear Sterns do you really think anyone their was working for minimum other then the janitors yet it will be public dollars shoring them up and Legislative policy that will keep them from a full melt down fearing what might happen while to many people are left losing their homes from a wiz bang who came up with the innovation of bundling Mortgage notes and selling them as a commodity to make a profit. So now they have moved on to energy and food with out some cost or regulation we will face the real prospect of entering another bubble cycle with out the capital to bail us out and we will see what happens in a full melt down. I think this is the worst case possible and I believe that legislation needs to be adopted now call it Proactive Government not Reactive as we have been for 30 years.
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p>With every cycle we seem to see it getting worse how many more will it take?
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p>By the way this is not the end of time I am predicting yet we could be laying the foundation of a new Depression if you have ever had the opportunity to know and talk with some one who was old enough to know what it was like it is not a scenario I think should be allowed to threaten us again. IMO opinion this maybe the point where we need to say enough is enough before many are hurt.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
… I (nor Krugman) was saying that speculation doesn’t exist.
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p>I’m no economist, my understanding is that K is just saying that speculation doesn’t account for the rise in Oil prices. He cites that there would be a buildup in inventories if speculators were manipulating the market. I guess to show he’s wrong you’d have to either point to the inventories he’s missing or explain how speculation wouldn’t necessarily result in higher inventories.
If excess inventory existed you would likely see a sharp slow down or decline in prices because of the risk that oil futures would not sell and thus sit and not generate the timely return on the investment. The buyer would have to come up with the full contract price and, then pay to store it, most do not have these resources which would then ad to the initial cost and reduce the likely hood of a promised return creating a loss of profits. It would then reduce prices to unload inventory so as not to incur a further cost. In this tight supply and demand situation we currently are in the ceiling in speculation will only be determined by when supply surplus results yet this can also be controlled by the out put of the raw product. Look through the Internet and see how many wells have returned into production in the US since the price began to rise. Many of these wells were shut down because of the cost associated with the extraction was to high a price point for the previous pricing structure to support.
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p>Normally prices climb in an economic model when demand out paces Supply and to the highest bidder goes the spoils. This is not the case here in Energy and in most of the food commodities as well. Supply has remained steady to demand. I would then suggest to you that yes there is Price Speculation going on and yes Price gouging at a level we have not seen before.
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p>I would submit to you as an economist that this is the same model we have seen repeating over and over for the last almost 3 decades and with every swing we get a little deeper into the hole. This has been exacerbated by the huge bounce in military spending as a result of the war in Iraq, which has simply made the ability of government to actually put real tangible resources into the breech. My original post was I think we have to figure out a way and fast before this crisis swallows us and our economy in one big gulp.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
I still think it has an awful lot more to do with the declining dollar.
government might perhaps step in and say hey, this speculation is starving millions of people and you assholes have to knock it off or go to jail.
Sabanes-Oxley compliance courses teach the cognitive dissonance and Orwellian doublespeak of “anti-trust” complicance issues even though less than zero enforcement of any concept of anti-trust laws have long since ceased to be enforced long ago by any branch of American government.
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p>I mean they could perhaps have stepped in and said, hey you guys should not write mortages for unemployed black felons or white trailer trash with an eighthy grade education but no, there were profits to be made and triple A ratings to be applied to junk investments.
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p>You can’t tell me they didn’t know because they knew when I ratted on the Army recruiters for having intimate details of my 22 year old daughter’s life they started fucking with my personal life.