Must suck to have a car ($5.00 gas prices!)

glad i don't need one. that at least takes away the immediate burden of having to purchase fuel.

it's those secondary residual costs that will be incurred due to rapid fluctuations in fuel markets. that fuel cost has to absorbed along the supply chain from manufacturer/point of origin to market and consumer.

this creates economic instability in the long run - and isn't this where you stand to make the most profits in commodities trading - when a market is highly volatile? i know that is the case for currency trading.

i guess if you control the actual commodity (by force), you effectively control the market, then you have something like a machine that makes money for you.

God I wish we would set up a real public transportation system instead of the joke that prevails in nearly all of our land. I would sell my car in a flash if I thought I could do without it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

this was the backbone of the travel industry at one time. even though it is slower, you could at least connect regional areas to passenger rail. or at least develop high speed rail/maglev. and use oil money to pay for it.

I live in Paris, France and love the transportation system here. For just under 2 Euro, I can travel all across Paris and into the outskirts. The tram system in Amsterdam, and the tube in London are also great. It's such a shame that the US can't find a better way of connecting people. But we are a car country!

I'm going home to San Diego in a couple of weeks and have already been thinking about how I'm going to get around. The trolley there is very limited as to destinations and times it runs. I'm not even thinking of renting a car because we have the highest gas prices in the country. It really is just so limiting.

country. It was manipulations by the auto industry that gutted the once excellent transport systems in America's cities. Dummy corporations were created to get controlling shares of trolley companies and when they got that control, they closed them down. Even now, the government subsidizes the auto industry with the building of more and more highways, and maintenance of the ones that exist, but it is pulling teeth to get funding for light rail, and when that funding is available it is nowhere near equitable with highway development.

Anybody have figures on the relative costs for building a mile of interstate, a mile of two-lane highway, and a mile of rail? Just gut instinct says the rail would be by far the least expensive.

I did not have my car and I did not need it. We used to take buses as kids to places and then some how all this car stuff started. Course my father and my mother both had a car of their own but in the 40's we had trouble getting gas so you took the bus still. My father said we should walk the mile to get our mail and we did every day.Walked to school and I do not think it hurt us. But now where do you walk? No side walks in many places. Can not spend money on sidewalks only on roads. When I lived in Alaska they were putting in Bike roads and you should have seen the battle on that.

Hummers and Suburbans are finally feeling the pinch.

I see hundreds every day with some white uptight thick lipped helmet haired loose nostril no neck motherfucker driving in it ALONE, almost all with a W'04 sticker on the back, and by god ENTITLED.

2 or my 3 kids (in their 30's), have never owned a car and have therefore had tons of cash to spend on sports activities, good restaurants, symphonies and plays, nicer housing and great vacations. They both live in highly urban areas. Once in awhile they rent a car if they absolutely have to.

prices in volatile markets, such as the oil and distillates spot markets. Longer-term futures and contracts tend to be much flatter. Even those have hit historic highs and are moving up rapidly.

The long (December 2010) NYMEX future on crude hit a new high yesterday, over $48.

The futures price is at

http://www.nymex.com/jsp/markets/lsco_fut_csf.jsp?

You have to click on 'i accept' and then you must 'submit' at the bottom of the page.

I think you captured the gist with your key phrase: "if you control the actual commodity (by force), you effectively control the market, then you have something like a machine that makes money for you."

True enough, normally. But, remember, the perception of loss of control can also spike prices. See my post earlier this morning on the Discussion page.

Look at this run-up as one massive tax hike on everyone...especially those who don't realize they're getting the bill for this regime's military follies and ransacking of the treasury.

Each time the price of oil goes up, so does the costs of everything that uses it...that will ignite inflation like we haven't seen in the 70's (oil cause that mess along with the bills of Vietnam) and overall prices will rise while the wages of most people will either stagnate or actually drop. Of course, the biggest winners are the BFEE oil buddies who are enjoying huge windfall profits...as well as their stockholders. Sucks if you can't be on the right side of this ball.

Also, with the rise of oil prices means increased taxes people are paying that go to the U.S. Treasury and right into the grubbies of this regime...extra billions each time the price runs up...a nice little extra stash that you'll never hear about. Wanna bet a good portion of that will end up in continuing the invasion of Iraq and other regime misadventures.

Where I live, there is almost no public transportation, and with how spread out this area is putting in an adequate system...and there have been endless studies over the past 30 years, would be expensive and require a huge bond issue then followed by years of public subsidies...no way something like that will ever pass on a referendum or bond issue. Bikes and walking are also all but impossible as most places aren't blocks but miles away...many commute an average of 30 minutes or 30 miles to their jobs from their homes..and a good portion of these are having to take jobs further from home to replace the ones they lost closer in. It's not a fun time in suburbia.

Before you pooh-pooh people who drive cars, understand that many who are being hit by these prices are middle class folks whose only sin is wanting to live outside a city and have to are reliant on the car. These people are also the "purple" voters...ones who Democrats should be relating to...explaining how badly they're being screwed by Repugnicans rather than an elitist attitude.

that has ended..

connect the dots

Based off of http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/

I live in the Washington, DC area and visit my parents in Chicago sometimes 688 miles each way. 1376 miles roundtrip.

I drive a 2004 Corolla. The cost of fuel for the roundtrip betweenn Washington, DC and Chicago is $75. (29 city, 38 highway)

If I were to drive a Hummer2 which gets 13mpg on the highway the fuel cost would be a staggering $240. Ouch.

David