Gazelam wrote:My wife drives a Suburban with a 40 gallon tank. Its over $120.00 to fill it up.
Its so fun to drive to St. George to visit her parents. I try to explain to her that it costs a fortune and we don't need to go every month.
EVery cloud...silver lining...etc etc
Last edited by Anonymous on Thu May 01, 2008 3:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
CaliforniaKid wrote:It's called Brita, my friend. Look into it.
Yeah. I refill the same water bottle with free purified water at my job. I drink probably 4 bottles a shift....really cleans out the system.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Heh. I just had a thought of the Road Warrior running out of gas, with the feral child having to steer while Mel pushs it desperately.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Well, see, here's the thing for those who are curious. I don't watch the news at all or even read the news. But I can't help but see when I log in to pay my HELOC that the Fed has lowered interest rates. I don't know how they are doing it, but judging by the drastic reduction in my payment, they might even be tampering with the discount window (I refuse to look it up). The Fed lowers interest rates out of belief in Milton Friedman's invention called monetarism. Specifically, monetarists believe that things like, tax rebates for example, don't help the economy and they have formulas they believe show how government spending in one sector of the economy "crowds out" other sectors. I know President Bush is practicing this dark art of Liberal Keynsianism (Keynes was a homosexual by the way) because I recently got a big check in the mail, unexpectedly, from the government as a "rebate". So monetarists think that in times of recession, if the expand the money supply, they have a solid chance at kick-starting something and getting business going. The benefit, however, is "trickle down" meaning, business and rich people benefit the most from the lower interest rates in that they can borrow more and expand, and if they build bigger empires and create more jobs, the average Joe is benefited. Of course, the rub is inflation. X amount of goods and services divided by Z+however much more money there is from credit expansion = the new price of stuff. In fact, ultimately, monetarists believe in the "long term neutrality of money" and in the long run, even lowering interest rates is a wash.
And the inflated stuff includes oil.
And I think my eye caught something on yahoo saying the Fed was looking at lowering rates again! I will not be following that up.
But the math in the short term would go something like this:
Interest rates go down and I am paying 120$ less a month for my HELOC. But I have a long commute, and if gas is 1 buck more a gallon due to inflation, then I am paing about 50 bucks a month more in gas.
So in the short run I am better off because of rising gas prices. Not sure about the long run.
Since I have no choice but accept monetarism, the best I can see coming from the situation is a wash. Because, after factoring in the transaction costs and the crowding out from the tax rebate escapade, the positive effect of the monetarist efforts will simply balance that out.
Probably better to have just left it all alone, and simply made option ARM loans illegal.
In Switzerland, during WWII : "This war is terrible! There are weeks when we couldn't buy lemon!"
Is one dollar per litre a big price? In Europe, the average is about 1.8$/lit, for years. ( this is about 8$ if I count it in the stupid gallon - hehe ). In Hungary, we are working as hard as anybody in the other parts of the world, and our average incoming is 1/5 - 1/6 of West Europe or USA.
On the basis of these numbers, WE should whine.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
I am used to litres so none of that makes sense to me. Here in 2000 it was about 70p per L and now is about 90p - £1.20 depending of the station, per L The prices haven't gone up too much, but they have gone up. A few times we have had them go right up and people queue for miles to get petrol. Everyone feels the need to get as much petrol as they can because they think we are going to run out. I have only seen that twice, the second time wasn't as bad as the first time.
I get fairly good gas mileage and we actually are in walking distance of the children's schools, post office, grocery, pizza parlor, library, town hall, ball fields, park, etc... -- so we walk or the kids ride their bikes, usually. It's not made that much of a difference, to me. Yet, I'm sure it does for those that must drive a lot.
