Sharp as a Marble - That $3.79 I paid for gas yesterday?

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You know, the $50 it cost to fill the tank of my tiny GTI? Imagine what that feels like when you’re pumping 200 gallons of diesel into your semi to haul things like food, supplies, and metals around.

That ammo that you’re just glad started showing back up on the shelf? Get ready for those prices to start going up.

Sadly, everything will start skyrocketing really soon. You can’t just print billions of dollars, restrict offshore drilling, continue all these ‘wars’, and pay the TSA to fondle elementary school children and not expect the value of the dollar to drop like Clinton’s trousers in a room full of interns.

Oh, and make no mistake about it, this ain’t being blamed on a single president or political party. The fruits we are beginning to see here are from the labor of decades of poor political shenanigans.

posted @ 3/3/2011 12:10:59 PM

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Sharp as a Marble - Pants, not only are they unnecessary on 3/4/2011 2:41:58 PM

Comments

AMB says:

on 3/3/2011 12:33:13 PM

I don't disagree with your point, but I wanted to point out that skyrocketing gas prices right now probably have a lot to do with several oil fields and refineries in the Middle East being shut down on account of the riots, revolutions, and other unrest.

Additionally, BP has been doing maintenance on some of its Deepwater rigs, including one right now off the coast of Nigera.

All a long way of saying: you're right about inflation, but short-term gas price increases are probably caused more by decreased supply.

Robb Allen says:

on 3/3/2011 12:48:58 PM

AMB, the short supply is a problem exacerbated by years of refusing to allow our own infrastructure to expand.

There is no silver bullet of a fix, nor is there a single point of blame. The market is sending signals with the price increase and it would have been nice to mitigate that with reserves of our own.

AMB says:

on 3/3/2011 1:01:11 PM

I suppose I can't much argue there. We had ample opportunity to open up new markets and new sources over the past 20 years and we definitely failed to do so.

I asked the Googles and found this very interesting chart.

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm

It looks like prices the past few years are about as high as they ever get. Though they've been higher before, and their low point was the mid- to late-90s.

SPQR says:

on 3/3/2011 6:36:21 PM

The US gets almost no oil from Tunisia, Libya, etc.

AMB says:

on 3/3/2011 6:53:44 PM

SPQR - True. But someone does. In the case of Libya at least (don't know about Tunisia) it's primarily European countries.

It still drives up global prices, since European countries will have demand for oil from other countries, including those that America usually buys from. So unrest in the oil-exporting countries still drives up global prices, which drives up US prices.

Hiro says:

on 3/3/2011 9:28:06 PM

as if i needed another excuse to stock up on more ammo

dagamore says:

on 3/4/2011 2:28:50 AM

SPQR right we dont, but others do. and in broad strokes, supply went/is going down, there for cost must go up(unless demand is going down as fast as supply or faster).

Douglas2 says:

on 3/4/2011 10:52:35 AM

Not only is supply sown, but demand is up. I've seen data lately showing that both passenger and freight miles are way up (compared to any time since late '08) in both Euroland and that country south of Canada. Cold winter in much of both places also diverted a lot of petroleum into heating oil.

ubu52 says:

on 3/6/2011 1:47:06 AM

The oil supply isn't down at all. The price is the result of traders driving the prices on the futures market up.

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