Just like in 1986 I pulled up to a pump and for the first time since about 1979 gas was under a dollar. About eighty-six cents I suppose. It set off a buying frenzy of the next new big thing in the automobile business. The Sport Utility Vehicle. Or SUV. All of a sudden you Volvo was not the hottest ride anymore.
Gasoline in the United states went to around $2 a gallon for a long while. Prices also went up during the 9/11 crisis. Retail purchases of durable goods stopped. Everyone filled their gasoline tanks and cans. Bought a bunch of food and probably guns. Durable good manufacturers including automobiles came out with 0 percent financing for long terms. As a whole consumer credit loosened up quite a bit. So everyone was buying again. That seems to be the key. Buying.
With this came the housing bubble. Everyone including my cat could get a credit card, a house and the free golf balls that Buick was giving out. We were really cooking. President Bush sent out an economic stimulus to tax paying individuates of $600 a piece a couple of times. What a terrible idea.
So now gasoline went down quite a bit. Good time to trade. Get me that big land yacht you have been craving for a long while. So now you are stuck with that big gas pig. Before it is over with you be back to paying $4 a gallon for gas.
I seen regular unleaded get down to 1.79. While premium was still about 80 cents higher. Is premium gas that much better? I guess if you have to use it you have to use it. In the winter I can get away with regular in the motorcycle. But in the hot Florida summer it ping quite a bit when taking off under a load. As premium fuel burns quicker it does not leave as much residue in the combustion chamber to cause the knocking sound. My car and most get along just fine on regular gas as the computer engine management takes care of any spark knock caused by high temperatures. As it adjusts timing instantly.
But anyway why did oil prices go down so much? I cannot be sure. They say worldwide consumption decreased. Do you see any less cars on the road? Was it because of sanctions against certain oil producing countries? Well I would think that would be less oil on the market. Could it be some kind of big plot to pull the rug from underneath of the success of the Canadian and and American production of domestic oil. With the recent success of production of oil and natural gas in the American and Canadian areas we were well on our way of being self sufficient in the energy world. No longer having to jump through hoops and beg like dogs for something that we could no longer produce. Well the North Americans got it done.
In the recent past a lot of areas have been in an economic depression. But with the oil and gas production have been cooking again. Many industrial and fleet automobile units have been running on natural gas since the seventies. So why did we not move towards that? Last time I checked I was not in need of a Bentley that required premium fuel.
A lot of it has to do with the news media. Is it $250,000 or a quarter of a million dollars? Both are tantamount but sound so different. We believe what we hear on the news. They are transporting oil by train. Really. They have only been doing that for a 150 years. Plus that gives railroad workers jobs too. So that is bad. They want to build a pipeline. If you build a pipeline you will have to have someone manufacture all that pipe, pumps and such. Causing a factory to have to operate. Maybe needing people to operate it. Then you have to have someone to put it up. Engineers, surveyors, welders, land moving machine operators, construction workers and who knows what else. Again causing just a bunch of dag gone work when everyone could just stay at home and hope to survive. All this work would however cut into their social media time. And who wants to do that. It may also stimulate the local economies where the workers are. Don't want to do that do we. And there would also be all the land owners that would receive royalties for having the pipeline pass through their properties. That would be bad too. So why bother with the pipeline.
Oil prices are down and gas is going up a bit. But kind of stable.But of course we have the refineries switching to the summer blend of gasoline. Which is for some reason more expensive. There are also a couple of refineries down for maintenance and repair after that explosion at one.
No one ever expects a world war to break out. They just seem to. Although there are signs. Slowly destroy a solid infrastructure that has been in place for a long time. Make the population passive and stupid. Put key people in places of influence. Undermine the ability to create essentials. Such as clothing and shoes. When is the last time you bought things made in the United States? The truth is that we are getting more dependent on others for the things we need. As a nation we need to move away from this. Certain things may be made best elsewhere. But at least make it here.
Instead of feeding people who breed and just lay around. We need to take care of the folks that do the work. If it takes that everyone has to carry a gun. So mote it be.
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