Soaring Gas Prices Threaten Family Budgets

Soaring Gas Prices Threaten Family Budgets

New York Times   |  JAD MOUAWAD   |   February 27, 2008 02:43 PM


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Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday.

The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation's economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing.

"The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession," said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist.

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"Oh, let them eat cake."

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:07 PM on 02/28/2008
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The only reason the price is going up is the greed of the oil companies, OPEC could have never gotten this much of an increase without Bush helping them. And still, congress won't do a proper investigation or hold anyone responsible. Bush and Cheney are destroying America and our 'noble politicians' sit on thier hands. Pelosi where are you?....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:34 AM on 02/28/2008

I hope the price of gas hits $10 a gallon-everything I see on the roads are SUV. When that changes, we know consumption will e brought down

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:45 AM on 02/28/2008

Don't you just LOVE hybrid Escalades . Talk about your OXIMORON

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:33 PM on 02/28/2008

Instead of the rebate cheques, how about building some refining capacity owned by the public. The shortage of gasoline seems to stem from shortage of refineries. The oil companies have shown they can't manage the oil business alone....or are managinging it in a way to maximize profits for themselves at the expense of the general public. They are the big culprit in the economic disaster that is happening. Energy should fall into a bracket that is controlled by the public....as is the fire department or schooling.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:24 AM on 02/28/2008

Nationalize the oil industry.....

These independent companies are to greedy to accept their responsibility to America DURING A TIME OF WAR.....

so pass the legislation now.....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:56 AM on 02/28/2008

Our politicans have rolled over big time. Technology needs to be spent in droves to avoid this assault. It will also reduce OPEC to sand

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:59 AM on 02/28/2008

Hey George Fuckwit Bush why don`t you just give us prepayed gas credit cards in stead of a check from the IRS

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:18 AM on 02/28/2008
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Under Bush, gas prices have gone from around $1 per gallon to now over $3 and experts are predicting $4 per gallon by the summer.

Is everybody happy? Thank you Republican party and the conservative wing of the U.S. Supreme Court. I hope that America repays you vigorously in the upcoming elections. May pink slips rain down upon your pointed little heads!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:57 AM on 02/28/2008
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Carpooling has great potential in the age of the internet.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:23 AM on 02/28/2008

Since you don't own a car/vehicle which I am envious of, then you are not aware of the 10% ethanol now in the gas supplies around the country. Nor are you aware of the dramatic drop in MPG a vehicle gets with this new mixture which creates a whole hell of a lot more fill ups at the pumps. And that is not including the upcoming problem with this new mixture fouling up the catalytic converters in the new automobiles.
No one ever gave it much thought when all the hoopla about how ethanol was a saviour to our up coming energy crisis but it is a corporate 'GOTCHA' moument that they knew would take in the gullible dumbed downed public.
Nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is being said about these issues that will pretty much wipe out families financially and totally. With these oil companies raking in 100s of billions of dollars of PROFITs a year and continuing to play the 'we have to keep raising the price' game when dropping the price would be not just a compassionate gesture that conservative corporate america wants everyone to believe with their 'appearance' kind of marketing ploys on the MSM which are more than will to allow but would actually stave off good bit of the upcoming depression we are sliding into.
I wish I could still live where I do but I am sure I will eventually have to sell or loose my home just so I can live in bicycle or walking distance of a place to work. But I will KNOW that when the total collapse of this country and million or billions of deaths are a result, THE GODDAMN CORPORATIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:14 AM on 02/28/2008

Shouldn't we be considering better public transportation. Geez, Europe has healthcare and good public transportation. Hello, anyone in Washington looking for alternatives. That's OK keep pissing off 90% of the country.

If they destroy the country there won't be a need for congressmen and senators anymore.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:46 PM on 02/27/2008

Hell, zaka1, I don't need 'em NOW...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:54 PM on 02/27/2008

LOL, I was thinking the same thing when I posted. Really, what are they doing?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:13 AM on 02/28/2008

Since I don't own a car, I'm not very concerned about rising gas prices. Actually, I'm a net beneficiary of rising gas prices since I own oil company stocks, which have been among my best performers for several years. I'm more concerned about rising food prices, which I think are being caused at least in part by misguided government ethanol policies. Ethanol production is a big user of corn, competing with cows for the limited corn supply in the country. Lately, it seems, the cows have been losing and the cost of meat and dairy products are up significantly in the past year. Too bad cows couldn't vote in the Iowa caucuses. If the Democrats sweep the House, Senate and Presidency later this year and decide to re-open NAFTA, don't be surprised if the price of gasoline takes another spike up. The US's largest supplier of foreign oil is Canada and any misguided protectionist trade policy by the US (advocated by Obama and Clinton, who would like to see NAFTA substantially altered) could result in more Canadian oil going to China and less to the US. If you don't like paying $3 per gallon of gas, you certainly won't like paying $4 or $5. Mexico, the US's other NAFTA partner, is also a major supplier of imported oil to the US.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:59 PM on 02/27/2008

You corporate shills never give it a break, do ya? The corn price panic in Mexico came about because American companies are growing corn there to feed their livestock. Geez! Read and learn will ya?

"Not an either-or scenario
- The so-called "food vs. fuel" wrongly asserts that a choice must be made between corn for food and corn for ethanol; in reality, the U.S. corn supply is ample enough to satisfy the needs of food, fuel, and feed markets.
- There are limits on how much corn can and should be used for ethanol, but the marketplace is best equipped to make the determination.

Misunderstanding corn for human consumption
- Many don't realize that corn for ethanol and corn for human consumption are two different types. Field corn, the type used to feed livestock, goes into ethanol production. Sweet corn, a very small portion of the U.S. crop, is the type eaten by humans.
- Critics routinely overstate how much corn is consumed as human food; in reality, less than 10 percent of the U.S. corn crop is annually used for human food in the form of sweeteners, cereals, etc.
- Corn's customers, in order, historically have been: the livestock sector, export markets, processors (including ethanol), and lastly, humans.
- Those spinning the "food vs. fuel" debate suggest that U.S. corn exports go directly to feed the malnourished in developing countries and that ethanol directly removes food from those in need. In reality, the majority of corn exports from the U.S. are used to feed livestock in developed countries.
- There is more food per capita today on a global scale than ever before, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Lack of infrastructure, access to capital, political instability, and other issues are the more likely causes of hunger than scarcity of food."

http://www.ethanol.org/news/?newsid=4

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:05 AM on 02/28/2008

We are really Fucking Up Bad..............for the longest time or most feared secret weapon was FOOD.

I`M THE FAT LADY.............TRALALALA!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:22 AM on 02/28/2008

Since you don't own a car/vehicle which I am envious of, then you are not aware of the 10% ethanol now in the gas supplies around the country. Nor are you aware of the dramatic drop in MPG a vehicle gets with this new mixture which creates a whole hell of a lot more fill ups at the pumps. And that is not including the upcoming problem with this new mixture fouling up the catalytic converters in the new automobiles.
No one ever gave it much thought when all the hoopla about how ethanol was a saviour to our up coming energy crisis but it is a corporate 'GOTCHA' moument that they knew would take in the gullible dumbed downed public.
Nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is being said about these issues that will pretty much wipe out families financially and totally. With these oil companies raking in 100s of billions of dollars of PROFITs a year and continuing to play the 'we have to keep raising the price' game when dropping the price would be not just a compassionate gesture that conservative corporate america wants everyone to believe with their 'appearance' kind of marketing ploys on the MSM which are more than will to allow but would actually stave off good bit of the upcoming depression we are sliding into.
I wish I could still live where I do but I am sure I will eventually have to sell or loose my home just so I can live in bicycle or walking distance of a place to work. But I will KNOW that when the total collapse of this country and million or billions of deaths are a result, THE GODDAMN CORPORATIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:14 AM on 02/28/2008

You forgot the 100's of billions of dollars in profits the military corporations are reaping in military contracts that protect the oil companies while they extract said oil in foreign countries. You forgot to mention the thousands of american soldiers, doing their duty, who died protecting the Halliburton's, etc., and the 25,000 maimed soldiers and 1 million refugees. Ethanol has already had an effect and we see it in the oversupply of oil. Their excuse now is that there are no refinery operations to produce more gasoline, thus the higher prices. BULL.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:21 AM on 02/28/2008

How many formulas of gasoline do we really need? Isn't there over 30? reduce that to 1 or 2 for the whole nation.

Expand the refineries to allow increased production. We need gas. Like it or not.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:52 PM on 02/27/2008
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and you just now noticed it..It's been eating at mine for years now...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:44 PM on 02/27/2008

A more appropriate title

SOARING GAS PRICES HAVE KILLED 90% OF AMERICAN FAMILIES BUDGETS

There is no recession.... the Bush Family has us headed for a depression the size of which will make the black and white 20's look like a tea party. More and more retailers will be looking for bankruptcy protection as the age of American consumerism ends at the gas pump. As the wealthy and tax free call Blackwater to provide them with protection from the restless mass of hungry unemployed

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:29 PM on 02/27/2008

I can see down that road...completely plausible

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:44 PM on 02/27/2008

since i don't own a car, i'm getting pinched by the FOOD PRICES! apparently drivers don't have to worry about what they can afford to buy at the supermarket after they've driven their gas guzzlers half a mile to get there.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:28 PM on 02/27/2008
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