PETROLPHOBIA (Page 30/66) USFiero AUG 16, 10:19 PM gas is just now starting to ease a little - if you think three and a half dollars per gallon is easing? maryjane AUG 17, 12:03 AM quote Originally posted by USFiero: Well, oil dropped back around $80 a barrel today aftr peaking above $100 a barrel - an unsustainable amount in a deflatde economy. Historically oil prices fall as gold goes up, and gold has hit some dizzying highs. Something to do with how the Saudis think or whatever. I know these are just the up and down motions of a world market, but this was a pretty sustained period of high fuel prices. This sort of thing changed the auto industry in the 70's (the Fiero being a product of that) and I suspect the momentum has started to get alt fuel cars on the road again. i'm a bit of an Adam Smith fan, and I'll bet you'll start hearing people mix his philosophy into economics chatter with all the fascination over our founding fathers. he believed that governemnts should encourage new business startups, and I'd bet he'd be all for new energy sources. Our country is the best place to develop and export this technology. China may build it cheaper, but we invent stuff. india - I don't know what India does best, but I have yet to see much come out of that country that is of value to us. 1. Oil has dropped due to bad economic outlook both in the US and Eurozone due to high debt and increased deficit spending. 2. The Fed's announcement that they will be keeping interest rates at near zero thru mid 2012 also added to that poor outlook. 3. Oil dropped as well when we missed our 2nd qtr projected economic growth rate, and at the same time, our 1st quarter growth rate was revised downward to ,08%, meaning, for the 1st 1.2 of 2011, the largest economy in the world grew at a dismal 1.5%. You are looking at India the wrong way. They have something very important that we not only want--we desperately need far more than any product they could make and send us-----consumers for our own exports. They are the 3rd fastet growning economy in the world. We not only cannot grow without them--we cannot survive without them. USFiero AUG 18, 12:11 AM quote Originally posted by maryjane: You are looking at India the wrong way. They have something very important that we not only want--we desperately need far more than any product they could make and send us-----consumers for our own exports. They are the 3rd fastet growning economy in the world. We not only cannot grow without them--we cannot survive without them. The best export the US has is our lifestyle. maryjane AUG 18, 12:25 AM That, in spite of what we would like to think, is not a very tradeable or even valuable commodity on the world market. The world is better informed than our egos allow us to accept, and as such, the world is more than happy to live in their own ascending economies than to wallow in our descending footsteps. India has a hugely successful "Buy India First" attitude, even tho we do have very liberal trade policies with them. We have lots of open doors in foriegn nations, but the truth is, we simply cannot force those consumers to buy our products when their own products are readily available and usually at a lower cost. Things were different back in the 50s and 60s, when we had virtually no competition from anywhere in the world--when we were the big dogs in the economic and manufactoring world, but after the rest of the world rebuilt after WW2, they caught up with us. We will never again, be the export giant we once were. Never (unless of course, another war comes that leaves us virtually untouched again and all the rest of the world in shambles.) USFiero DEC 05, 08:18 AM Gas prices are down, but not nearly enough. I know we Americans sound like we are whining, but this has a huge influence on our economy. We are a broad country of commuters/consumers, and our habits drive the world's economics successes and failures more than any other single currency. still. I paid $3.04/gal the other day. avengador1 DEC 05, 11:27 AM I noticed that regular was $3.19 yesterday. Prices here tend to go up during the busy tourist seasons and down when off peak. USFiero DEC 17, 11:48 PM Hovering just over $3 now. maryjane DEC 18, 03:23 AM $2.98 at Valero and Texaco here. $3.05 is the highest I have seen it. BlackEmrald DEC 18, 01:20 PM It has been about 10 to 25 cents under $3 for about a week now. USFiero DEC 28, 12:11 AM $3.04/gallon. Do I understand the long-hated Ethanol subsidy will end on the 31st and cause prices to go up?