kinda off topic - oil prices!

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nachoman

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I wish I had a barrel or three to sell right now - I could buy some pretty neat new trains with that money!

The real bummer is higher gas prices - not that I drive all that much (I probably only use 25 gallons a month), but the more I have to pay for gas, the less i have for my miniscule model railroad budget :cry:

Kevin
 
nachoman said:
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I wish I had a barrel or three to sell right now - I could buy some pretty neat new trains with that money!

The real bummer is higher gas prices - not that I drive all that much (I probably only use 25 gallons a month), but the more I have to pay for gas, the less i have for my miniscule model railroad budget :cry:

Kevin
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Yeah, I do remember when gas was .35/gal, and around then, gold was $35/oz. I wish I had bough some gold back then since it's now going for $1000/oz., 30 times what it was back then, while gas has only increased about 12 fold. I'm not defending either increase, just that it seems like gold would have been a better investment choice.:mad:
 
Are WE to blame?

Every excuse, but the one I hear over is the weak dollar. Is this because I would rather buy a foreign product (kato), to an american engine? Which N scale trains are made exclusively in the US?
 
csxengineer said:
Every excuse, but the one I hear over is the weak dollar. Is this because I would rather buy a foreign product (kato), to an american engine? Which N scale trains are made exclusively in the US?
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HAHA. Interesting spin on this topic sign1

I hear you about every excuse. The economy in general seems way more complex than I can ever understand. I'm trying to figure it out...trying...
:mrgreen:

Kevin
 
The weak dollar owes its sorry state to the foreign trade deficit, but worse still....to the IMMENSE budget deficits the gov't has run up...That debt is held, in large part by foreign govt's (Saudis, Japan, China...). Folks are starting to think that maybe it can't be paid back in the terms it was contracted...so they don't want dollars. They'd rather have something that doesn't loose its value...Gold.
 
Gus-

reminds me of a story my dad told me about when he was taking economics clssses in college (1960s). My dad said back then, all of his professors talked about deficit spending as being a good thing - if the government wanted more money it could print more. My dad, beiing an engineering student, was confused. He didn't know squat about economic details, but as a general life and scientific philosophy, he knew you can never get something for nothing. He says he wasn't smart enough to know then what the effect would be, but a few years later when inflation went rampant in the 1970s, the effecct became clear.

The housing price increase of a few years ago baffled many of us. But those of us that needed housing had little alternative but to pay. Now, the market has crashed and it is obvious that the inflated prices were in part do to investors, flippers, speculators, and those entering the market to try and make an easy dollar. I wonder if some of those people are the ones now investing in oil.

To keep this railroad related, it seems the railroad stocks are doing well. Shipping by rail is much more fuel efficient than shipping by truck. And seeing more trains on the rails can't be a bad thing :D

Kevin
 
Kevin...That's another important factor in the rocket-like increase in oil prices...Folks going after oil futures. We all know what happens when demand goes up for any commodity....be it pork bellies, corn, or oil....:cry:
 
This last oil price increase ($11.00) was purly the speculators getting affraid when Israel stated they would bomb Iran if Iran started to go to war with Israel. I guess they want all of the money now 'just in case' this happened. I guess I will have some Hobo soup again tonight!
 
All work has stalled on my layout room because of the rise of fuel and food. I drive about 80 miles each way to work, over time at the shop has shriveled to nothing. The money just is not there to put up a celling in the basement or start bench work. I really can't complain when most people here can barely make ends meat. I have just bin working on projects from off the back burner. I wanted to head to Easton to chase some trains this weekend but I don't want to burn the extra gas.
 
With the crop damaage due to recent severe weather in the Midwest, "ethanol" may not be a buzz word much longer. Besides the weather, the constantly soaring price of diesel, necessary to power farm equipment, and the associated rising costs of petro-chemical fertilizers, may sound the death knell for this "alternative fuel".
 
leon said:
This last oil price increase ($11.00) was purly the speculators getting affraid when Israel stated they would bomb Iran if Iran started to go to war with Israel. I guess they want all of the money now 'just in case' this happened. I guess I will have some Hobo soup again tonight!
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I'm sure as heck no expert on the topic. There are lots of people mentioning speculators as a cause of higher prices. And, to some extent, I believe that is true. However, (most) of the speculators are not idiots, and the only way thay can make money investing in oil is if the price continues to go up. I believe in the supply and demand theory, and think the speculators are reacting to what they see as a likely shortage of supplies, due to things like what Leon mentioned and other world affairs. They are not afraid of it, they are counting on it. And perhaps the biggest reason for their vision of continuing or worsening shortages is the actions of our own government. Candidates are trying to take advantage of peoples emotions about soaring prices, and pledging to "take the oil companies to the mat" Faced with uncertain legislation pending, what oil company wants to spend billions on finding new sources they won't be allowed to develop anyway? It is populat to blame the oil companies, and I don't mean to say they are blameless, I have no idea either, but I am pretty sure it is the government itself that causes the shortages and resultant price increases.
 
The issue of gas prices is killing everyone. Mandated ethanol blends is killing gas mileage. I speculate that I acutally burn more gas than I did before the mandates were put in. Case and point. With 10% ethanol, I am lucky to get 22 mpg. Without ethanol 28 mpg. approximately 20% better without. So 1.2 gallons of 10% ethanol equals 1.0 gallons of gas. or I am actually burning 1.08 gallons of gasoline from the ethanol blend. I can't wait for November and tell my state representatives what I think.

Good news is trains run on diesel or biodiesel and both don't seem to suffer from that effect.
 
For our gas prices...every around the world's prices have spiked. It isn't just the result of the exchange rate.

My hobby budget dislikes the rise in the price of styrene...bad for a scratch builder.

Ironically, the local teamsters were demonstrating at a local gas station yesterday...attacking american politicians.
The irony is that they picked a BP station...British Petroleum. I didn't hear if Gordon Brown responded :p
 
The Saudis, Chinese and Japanese hold most of the notes with which the U.S. gov't is financing its record budget deficits.....Yes...the gov't has to borrow the money it spends but doesn't have, just like anybody else...
 
And, because the dollar is progressively more worthless against the more stable currencies of the world, those notes are increasingly costly and less likely to be paid off.

America is now one of the premier debtor nations in the world.
 
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