Gas to hit $4 a gallon in August

Does anyone else think these predictions of gas prices are a bit of a case of the tail wagging the dog? It's almost like every time they predict a rise in gas prices, accompanied with explanations as to why it might happen, the gas companies say, "OK, that sounds good, let's bump up prices!"

I'm sure it doesn't happen that way, but every time I see a predicted spike in prices, it is followed by an actual spike. Since no one else -- from stock market analysts, to weathermen, to gamblers to psychics -- is even close to being as accurate in their predictions in anything else, it just seems odd that they are always spot on.

 

Pern --
I think it's mainly due to the fact that the TV analysts -- most of them cheerleaders for the corporate class -- know full well when the greedy bastards are going to raise prices, so they can predict it easily, but that they also know WHY (pure profiteering), but they don't want to say that, so they act like it's some sort of natural phenomenon.

 

Exactly. Fucking corporate dick-licking cheerleaders.

Turmoil in the Middle East? "Well, gas prices will have to rise, it's inevitable."

Hurricanes in the Gulf? "Well, gas prices will have to rise, it's inevitable."

Snowstorms in the Midwest? "Well, gas prices will have to rise, it's inevitable."

Bend over and pass the Vaseline (a petroleum product, BTW. ) "Well, gas prices will have to rise, it's inevitable."

$5.00 a gallon by Labor Day. Bank it.

 

How do Europeans get by? They've been paying the equivalent of US$5-6 a gallon for gas for quite some time now.

 

Save, save, save.

Cash will be king, people. I charge EVERYTHING now, simply for the miles. And I pay off my cards each month. In 2 years, the plan is to have enough miles for a big-ass TV for the basement (assuming i have a basement at that point).

After my recent vacation, i vowed not to take another one until my honeymoon. I purchased an ipod after losing mine 2 months ago, and I have vowed to not buy anything else except absolute necessities until the holiday shopping season.

I'm a cheap bastard to begin with, but I'm saving (and bracing) for the worst.

 

When we're paying $5-$7, of course, they'll be paying $8-$10.

Big Oil does nobody any favors.

 

Better public transportation? Countires which are a tad smaller (for those who take long, driving vacations here in the U.S.)? Do they even have SUV's in Europe?

 

Most European cities don't suffer from Americanized sprawl either.

 

Small cars. Renaults. Ford KAs. A four-door Civic would be a relatively large car over there. They also have far more stick shifts, and far more cars that use diesel, which is much cheaper over there. But mostly smaller cars. And, yeah, there are SUVs, but there aren't that many of them. The people who drive them can afford the gas.

 

Question: Aren't fuel prices driven by what crude oil is traded for in the markets? If oil was $10 a barrel and gas prices were $3.25 a gallon, obviously that'd be one thing. But if oil is $78 a gallon, aren't we pretty much assured we're not going to have cheap gas?

 

I filled up for $2.82 a gallon this morning. Across the river, in Illinois, gas was over $3.

Ask yourself how much you're paying in taxes per gallon, and then wonder where that money is going.

 

If people think that the companies having their highest PROFITS during such a time is OK, then, yes, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Drawing an analogy from Cosell calling that Tex Cobb disaster and his comments about how disastrous it was for the sport of boxing, I wonder if the oil companies know that this gouging has made environmentalism cool again, even among some red-staters who purely want to protect their own pocketbooks in the short term.

Hybrids?

Laughable 10 years ago.

Now Al Gore, tutti-frutti treehugger, has a big chunk of the country's rapt attention.

You want to see these fat, price-gouging, profiteering swine squirm? Make the tough choices that get you away from the petrol.

My next car will, without any doubt, be a hybrid.