To ANYONE who thought the $200 barrel of oil was inevitable

[Zeus]

I'd like to invite you to put your foot in your mouth big time. I mean, right from the toes all the way up to the ankle and heel

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investi ... d=16216870

Nice fucking try, oil barons. Your constant PR bullshit trying to drive up the price of oil hasn't worked for the last decade.

[Tessian]

don't you feel bad for them?? They can't report record breaking earnings this quarter! Oil barons are people too... they got families to feed and at this rate they won't be able to buy that 8th summer home!

Actually, I'm not liking that oil is THIS low... that's getting scary. The pendulum has swung the other way, and it's just a matter of time before it swings back. Don't get me wrong, I love that we somehow managed to stick it to the oil tycoons but I don't like the look of this.

[SineSwiper]

This guy's chin has had enough food for a while.

Seriously, though, I'm with Tess. The drop in price is highly unusual. Sure, a recession or depression would do something like that, but not on the order of $4/gal to nearly $1/gal. You don't see milk prices at a 1/4th of what they were. You don't see cars at a 1/4th of what they were. You don't see much of anything like that go down that fast and that severe.

[Zeus]

Oh, it's been so rapid it's unhealthy, but that's OK IMO. Really, the people who will suffer the most are those who have been feasting off of the industry forever. They're the ones who have been screwing the public for a while (last few years of blatant price-fixing on the retail end up here as well).

It's gonna go back up and settle around the $100 mark for a while IMO. But let the greedy fucks suffer and let us enjoy it for a bit. It's really a reflection of the economy as opposed to causing the downturn.

[SineSwiper]

Oh, it's been so rapid it's unhealthy, but that's OK IMO. Really, the people who will suffer the most are those who have been feasting off of the industry forever. They're the ones who have been screwing the public for a while (last few years of blatant price-fixing on the retail end up here as well).

It's gonna go back up and settle around the $100 mark for a while IMO. But let the greedy fucks suffer and let us enjoy it for a bit. It's really a reflection of the economy as opposed to causing the downturn.

Heh, suffer? You're kidding, right? They have been stockpiling for a while. They knew this was going to happen eventually. Shit like Peak Oil actually got them scared enough to worry about the future. (You know, because they actually have petrol scientists that know firsthand about Peak Oil, unlike every armchair scientist that THINKS they know.) Not in a "I'm going to invest in green technology" kind of way, but enough to try to get a much profit as they can.

Now, they are diving into green tech because it's fashionable again (or pretending that they do), and their money has nothing else better to do but burn away in the oil industry.

[Louis]

CNN had a panel of financial people making predictions for 2009 the other day. The only statement that caught my attention was the average gas price in the US will drop below $1 per gallon.

Why? Because the American auto industry has failed by producing the most energy inefficient vehicles. I have always driven American manufactured and designed vehicles until my current car (2007 VW Jetta). Sure, its engineered in Germany and manufactured in Mexico but it is a vastly superior product in both value and quality. And, I might add, I'm not the biggest fan of NAFTA so purchasing a Mexican manufactured product was not my first choice. Not for the concept, but for the way American industry has exploited it. And in this case, doesn't Volkswagen of America fall under NAFTA when manufacturing in North America?

So, to continue my train of thought here, since the American auto industry failed in their design, people are going to be loosing jobs. The petroleum industry made all this money raising prices because people already had their inferior American automobiles. They needed fuel so they kept purchasing gas regardless of cost. Then they got smart, like me, and purchased a more energy friendly vehicle (a Jetta isn't the best, but it was a good trade on the MPG/performance ratio...I always have an overly heavy foot).

There was a report not too long ago that one in every ten jobs in America are affected by the American auto industry. Now, the lower cost of gas means that more people may start looking to purchase their fuel inefficient "pony" cars (see Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, etc.) and their "land yachts" (see Chevrolet Suburban). It is in the best interest of the petroleum industry to lower prices so this will happen. The United States is a large consumer of petroleum products (I would assume it is by far the largest, but I don't feel like looking it up.) so if one and every ten people lose their jobs because the auto industry failed, no one is going to have vehicles to put gas in or if they do money to actually purchase it.

[SineSwiper]

Actually, China is the largest. It's having a BIG impact on the oil industry.

I also don't believe that people will continue to buy the gas guzzlers. If the economy was good and gas prices are this low, yes, they would. But, the fact that the prices are low feels like a temporary thing in a recession like this. Thus, people will feel that investing in a better MPG car will still work out, despite the temporary relief.

[Zeus]

The $150 barrel of oil scared the pants off of people and this recession is gonna be big and long, and feel much closer to a depression to a lot of Americans. Because of that, I think it will actually have a serious affect on their long-term habits even if they didn't get hit too hard personally this time around. People are simply gonna watch themselves a lot more. You're not gonna have an entire nation of gluttonous consumers again. And what's one of the things they're gonna watch? The type of car they buy.

People started to realize just how much they were spending on fuel when the companies got greedy and tried to reset prices across the world (no, it wasn't directly tied to the oil barrel price; they just used it as an excuse, they could easily have just waited it out a bit). They made people focus on it when before many didn't. That ain't gonna go away even when the recession is gone. It's gonna be a permanent change in a lot of people. Not all but enough to have a serious affect on long-term profits.

And all because they were too greedy too fast.