The price of one gallon of gas is skyrocketing faster than I have seen for a VERY long time. I live in Southern California and have watched the price jump up more than $0.21 in less than 48 hours! Should people be concerned? Absolutely. But here’s what I think is more concerning:
“Basics, it’s supply and demand, and unfortunately that means rising prices,” said Jeffery Nugent, a professor of economics at USC.
Nugent said there simply aren’t enough refineries producing gasoline in the U.S.
“There are some refineries that are closing down, and it seems that it’s not a very profitable business,” he said.
Does it cost you hundreds of dollars just to get to work each month? If it does, you are certainly not alone. There are millions of other Americans in the exact same boat. In recent years, the price of gas in the United States has gotten so outrageous that it has played a major factor in where millions of American families have decided to live and in what kind of vehicles they have decided to purchase. Many Americans that have very long commutes to work end up spending thousands of dollars on gas a year. So when the price of gas starts going up to record levels, people like that really start to feel it. But the price of gas doesn't just affect those that drive a lot. The truth is that the price of gas impacts each and every one of us. Almost everything that we buy has to be transported, and when the price of gasoline goes up the cost of shipping goods also rises. The U.S. economy has been structured around cheap oil. It was assumed that we would always be able to transport massive quantities of goods over vast distances very inexpensively. Once that paradigm totally breaks down, we are going to be in a huge amount of trouble. For the moment, the big concern is the stress that higher gas prices are going to put on the budgets of ordinary American families. Unfortunately, almost everyone agrees that in the short-term the price of gas is going to go even higher. (Read More....)
Gas prices could hit $4.50 a gallon nationwide by summer because of sanctions on Iran, a frigid winter in Europe, and logistical challenges in the US. The current all-time high is $4.11.
Christian Science Monitor
New York
Many drivers are already grumbling at gas prices this winter. But by this summer, Friday's AAA average of $3.58 a gallon for regular gasoline may look downright attractive.
Some energy analysts think gasoline on a national basis could climb into the $4.50 a gallon range. That would be above the all-time peak of $4.11 a gallon set on July 14, 2008. In some states such as California, Hawaii, and Alaska, prices are normally higher and could get closer to $5 a gallon.
“We are on track for a very expensive summer,” says Sander Cohan, a gasoline-market analyst and principal at Energy Security Analysis, Inc. in Wakefield, Mass...[Full Article]
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.
At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.
"You're going to see a lot more staycations this year," says Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "When the price gets anywhere near $4, you really see people react...[Full Article]
Does Lindsay Lohan understand monetary policy better than Ben Bernanke does? The other day, her Twitter account sent out the following message: "Have you guys seen food and gas prices lately? U.S. $ will soon be worthless if the Fed keeps printing money!" Well, it turns out that it was a "sponsored tweet" that Lohan was paid to send out, but in a subsequent tweet Lohan explained that "i actually do care about gas and food prices, so whether it's an #ad or no, it's important for people to be aware of it." Okay, so we probably will not see Lohan at any "End the Fed" rallies, but it turns out that in her own bizarre way she has brought a little bit of attention to some very important issues. Food and gas prices are skyrocketing, and a lot of the blame for that can be placed on the shoulders of the Federal Reserve. (Read More.....)
The forecast for the summer driving season: Hit the road early. Not to beat the traffic, but to beat the higher gas prices expected in mid-July.
Goldman Sachs' crystal ball is proclaiming that oil will soon soar to $135 a barrel, and likely have service stations jacking up fuel prices to $5 a gallon in New York just like the summer of 2008 that preceded the recession.
Indeed, analysts say Goldman and the other oil trading giant that also has the might to move prices, JPMorgan Chase, have already placed their energy bets for the summer. JPMorgan predicts oil hitting $130 a barrel in the coming weeks...[Full Article]
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Journalist Jim Tucker talks with Alex Jones, April 22, 2011.
In a follow-up to his original article, veteran newspaper reporter and Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker told Alex Jones today that the globalists fully intend to launch a ground invasion of Libya and also jack up the price of gas to $7 per gallon. (See also: Kissinger Calls For US Ground Invasion Of Libya.)
“By the end of the year 2012,” Tucker told Jones, “they (the Bilderbergers and the elite) want us paying $7 a gallon for gasoline… what they want to do is bring the American standard of living down to the standard of the so-called third world… they want the whole world to have the same standard of living.”
In 2007, Jose Barroso, president of the European Commission and a Bilderberg member, called for a “post-industrial revolution” under the guise of eliminating so-called greenhouse gases. The failed 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was an effort to impose a lower standard of living on the United States and much of the Western world.
In order to usher in the a new feudal society and implement authoritarian control over humanity, the global elite must slash the standard of living across the board. They plan to this through the United Nations and Agenda 21 and demands for “sustainable development.”
Maurice Strong, a commissioner of the World Commission on Environment and Development at the United Nations, spelled out the Brave New World the elite have in mind for us when he stated that “current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns.”
In 2005, Tucker and fellow Bilderberg sleuth and author Daniel Estulin cited inside sources that indicated oil prices would double within a year.
During the 2006 Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa, Canada, the elite agreed to push for $105 a barrel before the end of 2008.
Crude oil futures peaked at a close of over $77 in July 2006, and in December 2006 at about $63. In September 2007, U.S. crude crossed $80. Less than a year later, on July 11, 2008, oil prices rose to a new record of $147.27. The price settled to around $125 a barrel on July 24, 2008. In March of that year, Goldman Sachs predicted a “super-spike” in crude prices that would push the price over $200 a barrel.
In order to put this into perspective, consider that oil stood at $17 a barrel in January of 1999.
On October 26, 2008, pastor Lindsey Williams, who worked closely with transnational oil corporations in Alaska, was told by his insider sources that the price of oil would fall to around $50 per barrel. On December 21, 2008, oil was trading at $33.87 a barrel, less than one fourth of the peak price reached four months earlier. Paster Williams said the elite would then take the price back up through the stratosphere, a process we are now witnessing firsthand at the gas pump.
Estulin’s insider information has proven accurate in the past. In 2006, the researcher’s Bilderberg sources told him the elite planned to implode the artificially inflated housing bubble, create an economic crash, implement a global centralization of banking power, and use the crash as an excuse to call for world government.
In 2007, during the annual Bilderberg conference, Henry Kissinger told attendees that the elite had resolved to make sure oil prices doubled within 12-24 months, “which is exactly what has happened,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote on September 17, 2007.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, but one filling station in Florida has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in the country.
Suncoast Energys, located near the Orlando International Airport, was charging $5.69 a gallon for regular gasoline on Friday. That's the highest of any gas retailer in the nation, according to price tracker gasbuddy.com...[Full Article]
The combination of rising gasoline prices and the steepest increase in the cost of food in a generation is threatening to push the US economy into a recession, according to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners.
Gas station in San Francisco.
Johnson looks at the percentage of income consumers are spending on gasoline and food as a way of gauging how consumers will fare when energy prices spike.
With gas prices now standing at about $3.90 a gallon, energy costs have now passed 6 percent of spending—a level that Johnson says is a "tipping point" for consumers.
"Energy is not quite as essential as food and water, but is a necessity in today's economy, and when gasoline costs more than bottled water—like now—then it takes a huge bite out of disposable spending," he said, in a research note...[Full Article]
Motorists in five states are paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline, and New York could be joining the list this week, MyFoxNY.com reports.
Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Illinois already have pump prices above $4, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge, with Hawaii paying the highest at $4.47 per gallon. The New York average is $3.996...[Full Article]
NEW YORK (AP) -- The average price of gasoline is now above $4 per gallon in five states, and it could rise to that level in New York and Washington, D.C., this weekend.
The $4 mark is a tough reminder for American drivers. The last time they saw prices that high was in the summer of 2008, just before the economy went into a tailspin. Retail surveys show that motorists are already starting to buy less fuel, yet the government still expects pump prices to keep climbing this summer.
The national average has increased for 24 straight days, hitting $3.82 per gallon on Friday. It's above $4 in Connecticut, Illinois, California, Hawaii and Alaska.
Meanwhile, benchmark crude lost 44 cents to $107.67 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
WASHINGTON - Gas prices are going up. And up. And up. And now, the Energy Department predicts the cost of gasoline this summer will be 40 percent more than last year...[Full Article]
CHICAGO (CBS) – At one time, $5 per gallon gas seemed like a far-fetched idea, but that is no longer the case.
As of Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Chicago area is $4.11, compared with $3.71 a month ago, and about $3.10 a gallon at this time a year ago.
Some experts say $5 per gallon gas is possible by Memorial Day-or sometime in summer. Others caution that reaching that mark is unlikely over the next six weeks. In Chicago, the prices keep rising to near-record levels–with no relief in sight...[Full Article]
With the price of gas above $3.50 a gallon in all but one state, there are signs that Americans are cutting back on driving, reversing a steady increase in demand for fuel as the economy improves.
Gas sales have fallen for five straight weeks, the first time that has happened since November, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending at 140,000 service stations nationwide...[Full Article]
Whether it's at the pump or in checkout line at the grocery store, cost of living items are on the rise.
A survey by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau shows food prices are up 5 percent this year.
The bureau's 'Marketbasket' survey totals the cost of 16 food items. In the first three months of 2011, the total was $48. That is up $2.39 from December's price for the same items.
Topping the survey's list
Apples increased 24 cents (18 percent) to $1.52 per pound.
A gallon of whole milk increased 50 cents (17 percent) to $3.41 per gallon.
One pound of bagged salad increased 33 cents (15 percent) to $2.48.
A five-pound bag of flour increased 25 cents (12 percent) to $2.34.
One pound of ground chuck climbed 32 cents (10 percent) to $3.41.
However the study shows Wisconsin's price is more than $1 less than the national survey of the same 16 food items.
Prices are rising at the gas pump as well.
According to AAA, the price for a gallon of regular grade gasoline in the Green Bay area is $3.767. That is up nearly 25 cents in the last month ($3.529) and about 90 cents form a year ago ($2.883) from this time last year. The highest recorded average price is $4.056 from July 2008...[Full Article]
Pitching the promise of energy independence, President Barack Obama cautioned Wednesday that it’s going to be tough to transition from America’s oil-dependent economy and acknowledged there’s little he can do to lower gas prices over the short term.
“I’m just going to be honest with you. There’s not much we can do next week or two weeks from now,” the president told workers at a wind turbine plant. It’s a theme Obama’s struck before as he tries to show voters he’s attuned to a top economic concern with gas prices pushing toward $4 a gallon.
Obama said he wants to move toward “a future where America is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant on clean energy produced by workers like you.” That will happen by reducing oil imports, tapping domestic energy sources and shifting the nation to renewable and less polluting sources of energy, such as wind, the president says. He has set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025.
But the president said it won’t happen overnight and if any politician says it’s easy, “they’re not telling the truth.”
“Gas prices? They’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that’s going to take a couple of years to have serious effect,” Obama said.
Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle...[Full Article]
It won’t be long before we’re paying $4 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, at least if prices keep going up at their current pace.
Prices have already surged 38 cents a gallon in metro Detroit since President’s Day and likely will jump again by early next week as crude oil prices shot up nearly $3 Friday to $104.63 a barrel...
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Gas prices have recorded their biggest one week increase since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It’s totally ridiculous, man,” said Anthony Pollard. He is feeling the pinch at the pump, like many other motorists. “I’m putting $50 in here today. And that’ll probably get me half a tank.”
Pollard owns a Chevy pickup. His other vehicle is a gas-guzzling Lincoln and he refuses to drive that until prices come back down, which may not be anytime soon.
AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Rick Remington says prices jumped 21-22 cents nationally and 18 cents in the Delaware Valley over the past week.
Remington says there’s a lot of volatility out there, so drivers would be wise to shop around.
“We’re seeing prices vary from $3.14 in South Jersey to $3.50 in Philadelphia. So within about a 15-20 minute drive, quite a spread.”
Industry experts predict we could see prices head up to the 3.75 zone by April...[Full Article]
