kind of heartbreaking (rural areas and the gas crisis)

[Mupepe]

WHAT'S WITH ALL THE RECENT SCOOTER TALK?

SCOOT SCOOT

I'm just buying roller skates and a grappling hook.

damn that's a brilliant idea

[cloudwalking]

i'd totally get a scooter, have no place to park it though.

[Mupepe]

i'd totally get a scooter, have no place to park it though.

LOL

yes you do

[Phoenix Dark]

lol i heard some people talking about the gas tax at the pump a few minutes ago

lady: wow when is bush going to pass the gas tax bill? i can't take these prices anymore
old lady: you won't save any money, it's a scam
lady: haha sounds like a conspiracy. of course i'll save money, i work at Applebees

McCain landslide confirmed 

[FlameOfCallandor]

taxes

[Fragamemnon]

speculators fucking shit up again?

this has been my take on things since the start of this run up. They can't get their guaranteed returns in the stock market, real estate, bond markets, or crazy derivatives/currency markets anymore. So they've moved on to commodities. They'll bust that bubble too.

The real problem is, as it was in the 90s stock market and the real estate bubble, too much money (lent on margin) with not enough diversified investment vehicles to deliever the ridiculously high expected returns that some of these companies expect. Eventually things will work themselves out once enough funds go tits up due to massive overleveraging and bad risk assessment due to fund manager groupthink.

The commodities market is also an exceptionally dangerous area to be running up via speculation, as its effect of overall government destability in marginal countries is very high it has a tangible effect of dragging down economic growth (thus hurting other investment vehicles in the process).

Hopefully this will be the last big bubble that happens. It's high time for a rectal suppository of real regulation/disclosure so people can actually see what a tower of cards some of these funds are built on.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

We do need more refineries in the U.S.

I live less then an hour from a refinery and gas is still $4.44 a gallon.  Never before have I been so happy to be driving a rinky-dink, ugly and fuel efficient car then I am now.

[brawndolicious]

We do need more refineries in the U.S.

I live less then an hour from a refinery and gas is still $4.44 a gallon.  Never before have I been so happy to be driving a rinky-dink, ugly and fuel efficient car then I am now.

[/b]
same.  I laugh when people talk about how their SUV is one of the more fuel-efficient ones.

[FlameOfCallandor]

You proximity to a refinery doesn't mean anything.

[Van Cruncheon]

this has been my take on things since the start of this run up. They can't get their guaranteed returns in the stock market, real estate, bond markets, or crazy derivatives/currency markets anymore. So they've moved on to commodities. They'll bust that bubble too.

The real problem is, as it was in the 90s stock market and the real estate bubble, too much money (lent on margin) with not enough diversified investment vehicles to deliever the ridiculously high expected returns that some of these companies expect. Eventually things will work themselves out once enough funds go tits up due to massive overleveraging and bad risk assessment due to fund manager groupthink.

The commodities market is also an exceptionally dangerous area to be running up via speculation, as its effect of overall government destability in marginal countries is very high it has a tangible effect of dragging down economic growth (thus hurting other investment vehicles in the process).

Hopefully this will be the last big bubble that happens. It's high time for a rectal suppository of real regulation/disclosure so people can actually see what a tower of cards some of these funds are built on.

frag with the REAL TALK

time to break some knuckles on the hand of the free market

[Howard Alan Treesong]

invisible hand, meet the invisible ruler

[siamesedreamer]

sd's shot at the minimum wage are dumb, but we all know that.

Workers 25 and older - unemployment rose only 0.2%
Workers 20-24 - unemployment rose 1.5%
Teenaged workers - unemployment rose a whopping 3.3%.


Mandark: "Stats Lie"

[Flannel Boy]

sd's shot at the minimum wage are dumb, but we all know that.

Workers 25 and older - unemployment rose only 0.2%
Workers 20-24 - unemployment rose 1.5%
Teenaged workers - unemployment rose a whopping 3.3%.


Mandark: "Stats Lie"

Don't all economic downturns disproportionately hit people with the least amount of education, training, and job experience?   

edit:

Here's an article from January 2002 reporting that young adults were hit hardest during the 2001 economic downturn: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-1332176_ITM
And the minimum wage wasn't raised in 2001.

[AdmiralViscen]

that we know of

[Mandark]

Malek: Generally, yeah.  Unemployment in the black population went up twice the rate of the average population.  Also the labor participation rate went up .2%, and the official unemployment stat uses active job-seekers as the denominator.

That's one way crappy job growth can be masked.  If people just stop looking it keeps the unemployment rate artificially low.

Also, quick scan of the BLS shows that labor costs are rising at the same rate or slower than the last few years.



Genghis: I thought of that, but I think these are meant to be seasonally adjusted stats.  I'm not sure, though.


edit: A-ha!

[siamesedreamer]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aM7tm5F_ezKs&refer=home[/url]
seems others agree

The other way to look at it is that they're "swelling the labor pool" because wages are higher and will get even higher July 24th. 

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I live in Iowa.

My friends that drove F-150s are now desperately trying to unload them.  One just bought a new F-150 last year for $30,000 and the highest offer someone has made on his truck is $7,500, which isn't even close to covering the final amount he owes.  He was a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow for buying such an expensive truck but he is really freaking out over how bad the situation is.  Nobody wants to buy pick up trucks in the Midwest, which you know means something very wrong is going on.

The only positive is that excess driving is cut considerably.  What was once jammed traffic intersections are now a lot more navigable.  There are far less SUVs on the road.

Gas around my area is about $3.80-$3.90 for 89.

[AdmiralViscen]

Wow, it's like $4.35 for 89 here.

[siamesedreamer]

Anecdotally, there were significantly less cars on the major road outside my apartment this weekend. It was actually kind of eerie.

[etiolate]

I am on the scoot bandwagon

[The Fake Shemp]

Gas near my house went up in the middle of the day to $4.66

[Howard Alan Treesong]

$5 gas by August!

[brawndolicious]

yeah it'll hit $5 this summer in california at least.

[Raban]

$4.69 where I live. Last week it was $4.48. Last month it was $3.90

I hate California.

[Cormacaroni]

Why would this be a bait thread for me?


Also, I haven't seen gas above 3.90 here. Ever

...and obviously it will never ever ever go any higher! So you're safe!

Hell, i bet there are OCEANS full of the stuff that they just haven't bothered to drill for yet.

[demi]

Fuck buying a car, I'll stick to being a hermit 

[crimsondynamics]

I'm just happy I live in an island where private transportation isn't just frowned on, it's downright illegal to own any form of motorized transport that relies on fossil fuels for combustion. I also contribute less to humankind's global carbon footprint.

Public transportation is so fantastically great, convenient and efficient here, it is cheaper and faster to go places with it than with your own car.

[BlueTsunami]

BOOBOBOB ITS EXPENSIVE IN EUROPE TOO!

Fuk off euros, you live on a thumbtack by comparison

The Euro argument annoyes me so f'n much. I wanted to stab the guy on GAF that laughed at Americans and the fact that their complaining (also stating that hes reveling in their plight). Disgusting.

[Cravis]

My wife and I make dinner at home 1 more night a week then we used. The money we save doing that makes up for the extra we're putting in our cars for gas. Problem solved.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Wow, it's like $4.35 for 89 here.

I know, it is surprising, especially considering how about half of Iowa currently is flooded.

[AdmiralViscen]

Today at a full serve gas station the guy pumping my gas bumped up the price 5 cents while I was sitting there.

[CrystalGemini]

I'm just happy I live in an island where private transportation isn't just frowned on, it's downright illegal to own any form of motorized transport that relies on fossil fuels for combustion. I also contribute less to humankind's global carbon footprint.

Public transportation is so fantastically great, convenient and efficient here, it is cheaper and faster to go places with it than with your own car.

Where do you live?  (So we can stalk and rape you.)   

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Why would this be a bait thread for me?


Also, I haven't seen gas above 3.90 here. Ever

...and obviously it will never ever ever go any higher! So you're safe!

Hell, i bet there are OCEANS full of the stuff that they just haven't bothered to drill for yet.

Joke post?  There is still lots of oil to be had with oil shale, tar sands, coal conversion, etc.

[siamesedreamer]

Yeah, there's something like 4x the reserves of Saudi Arabia in the Rocky Mountains. Its just not cost efficient to extract it yet.

[Brehvolution]

I feel bad for all the big truck, SUV, but not Hummer owners. Americans were led to believe that bigger was safer. Who doesn't want to protect their family with a bigger vehicle.
I remember about 9 years ago in my no w wifes Jeep Cherokee filling up at $0.99/gal thinking that I would never see that again.
 
The market on big vehicle must have become saturated enough that a switch was flipped.

"Time to rape the guzzler owners." There is enough out there since SUV's were mainstream. I may be a candidate for a tinfoil hat, but this all seams planned. This all seam like it was planned from the start by oil men "telling" car manufactures what to market for cheap.

The American people have been bamboozled. But I'm glad I made the right choices for my family. Even if my costs do rise somewhat.

I've been driving for more than half my life and I've never seen what is going on today, gas price wise.

[Brehvolution]

Glad I'm not alone.

[siamesedreamer]

still not?  we need to get some supermassive solar powered machines to do the extracting for us.  OH GOD SAVE US IBM, YOU MASTERS OF TECHNOLOGY

I believe its basically like the tar sands in Canada. Except, unlike being on the surface, its buried under the Rocky Mountains. Hence, too expensive to get to.

[Cormacaroni]

Yeah, there's something like 4x the reserves of Saudi Arabia in the Rocky Mountains. Its just not cost efficient to extract it yet.

How high do you think the price of gas will be by the time it IS cost-efficient to extract this? Are we likely to get super-efficient technologically, or just wait for prices to rise high enough that it's worth extracting it even at an exorbitant cost? I'm betting on the former. In other words, this doesn't solve any of the immediate problems. Also, the Rocky Mountains are kind of nice. It might be nice to keep all those eagles and stuff if we can.

I'm not suggesting that there is no more oil in the world; I am ridiculing the attitude that because gas prices haven't been a problem for one person in one area, that the situation is somehow not a problem on a global, historical scale. The knock-on effects of gas prices are enormous. If you don't get hit at the gas pump, you'll still get hit as your food prices rise, for example. The cost of making and transporting everything go up.