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2008-10-06 Home Front Economy

Oil falls to 8-month low below $90 a barrel

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Posted by ed 2008-10-06 08:32|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 Well, then, time to buy the 8-cylinder.

Posted by Perfesser 2008-10-06 09:02|| 2008-10-06 09:02|| Front Page Top

#2 I look at this as for every $10/barrel drop in the price of petrleum, the US keeps $44 billion/year in the US. From the high of $147/barrel to $90/barrel, that's $250 billion/year that US consumers and industry keeps. That's the real WOT.

Posted by ed 2008-10-06 09:29|| 2008-10-06 09:29|| Front Page Top

#3 Fannie and Freddie go tits up. Undeserving borrowers are told to RENT! Big city banks take an enima. Loans tighten. Crude oil prices drop. OPEC beats it's chest. Stock market corrects. Russian economy slides, USD rises on Euro and world markets. Obama unmasked.

Please, send me MORE good news!

Posted by Besoeker 2008-10-06 09:36|| 2008-10-06 09:36|| Front Page Top

#4 Why is it that, when oil was knocking on $150/barrel's door, gas was $4.00+ per gallon and now that oil has plummetted over 1/3, the price of gas is around $3.50 or about 13% lower?

Posted by Carbon Monoxide">Carbon Monoxide 2008-10-06 09:36|| 2008-10-06 09:36|| Front Page Top

#5 There are places in Kansas below $3/gal, but then we have our own refineries which don't shut down during hurricane season.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-10-06 09:48|| 2008-10-06 09:48|| Front Page Top

#6 Hang in there, CM. $3.27 in several places I passed in Delaware this weekend.

Posted by Darrell 2008-10-06 09:50|| 2008-10-06 09:50|| Front Page Top

#7 Wouldn't it be nice if the price remained stable? Perhaps as a result of an import fee that kept the price of a barrel of imported oil at a minimum $100?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-10-06 09:51|| 2008-10-06 09:51|| Front Page Top

#8 ...also drill our own oil especially out my way. Its called, what is that..Energy Independence. Now if our governor would let us build our own power plants then we would really be onto something.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-10-06 09:51|| 2008-10-06 09:51|| Front Page Top

#9 The $90 oil hasn't arrived at the refineries yet. It will.

Posted by Darrell 2008-10-06 09:52|| 2008-10-06 09:52|| Front Page Top

#10 Who mandates the 31 Flavors (or more) of gasoline? Is it federal in nature or is it individual states deciding they need such-and-such kind?

Posted by Grenter, Protector of the Geats 2008-10-06 10:08|| 2008-10-06 10:08|| Front Page Top

#11 The $90 oil hasn't arrived at the refineries yet. It will.

The $150 dollar oil hasn't arrived at the refineries yet either. Didn't stop the lcd's on the pump from going up the day after the price increased on the futures market. The amplitude of price increases is sharp and the amplitude of price decreases is gradual. Funny about that huh?

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-10-06 10:31|| 2008-10-06 10:31|| Front Page Top

#12 At $90/barrel, retail gas should be about $3/gal. Give it a few weeks for the local production and imports to be refined and shipped.

I would be OK with it oil settling at $60/barrel. That's high enough for alternatives to be profitable and gradually replace imports. Unfortunately I don't think our leaders have the foresight to place an import tax price floor on petroleum, encourage US production/alternatives and give tax credits to fuel efficient vehicles/penalize gas guzzlers. The price of oil is not just what the refiners pay, but the extra costs dealing with enemy/unstable oil exporters and the foregone tax revenues of importing oil and exporting jobs and dollars.

Posted by ed 2008-10-06 10:38|| 2008-10-06 10:38|| Front Page Top

#13 If I could be sure, and that's a Hell of a big if, that the extra revenue would go toward building nuclear power plants in this country, I'd be willing to accept an import floor of $100/barrel. I'd be willing to keep the tariff until such time as we had enough power here to make certain that if every car in America was electric we wouldn't have any problem supplying the juice.

Being obligated to the oil ticks has cost our country dearly. Getting off the oil addiction should be our No. 1 national priority because being entangled in the Middle East's insanity is our No. 1 national danger. The sooner we can disengage our national interest from there, the safer we will be.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-06 11:41|| 2008-10-06 11:41|| Front Page Top

#14 Who mandates the 31 Flavors (or more) of gasoline?

The Federal government. Which is why a city like Chicago has 2 different sets of formulas within the city limits.

Posted by Frozen Al 2008-10-06 11:43|| 2008-10-06 11:43|| Front Page Top

#15 Hell, I couldn't even FIND gas last Thursday and Friday. I had to siphon the lawnmower to get enough gas to get to work this morning.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2008-10-06 11:55|| 2008-10-06 11:55|| Front Page Top

#16 That sucks DB.

Posted by BrerRabbit 2008-10-06 12:20|| 2008-10-06 12:20|| Front Page Top

#17 DB we seem to have finally turned the corner in ATL.

Posted by Beavis 2008-10-06 12:27|| 2008-10-06 12:27|| Front Page Top

#18 Yes, a tariff setting a $60 price floor on oil is essential to keep investment going. The proceeds should not go into the general fund, but should be used for tax credits on energy infrastructure: oil, gas, nuclear, green.

Posted by KBK 2008-10-06 12:40|| 2008-10-06 12:40|| Front Page Top

#19 Getting off the oil addiction should be our No. 1 national priority

Just not going to happen, at least not in my lifetime or yours. We can, however, buy more oil from ourselves and less from the ME. Drill here. Drill now.

Even though I find such things repulsive in general, a price floor on imported oil might be a necessary evil. It's the sort of thing that will ensure that billions in investment capital flow into expanding our domestic oil industry. I am told by an industry friend that the price needs to be $100/bbl for shale to be viable. That seems high, but it should be on the table.

Posted by Iblis 2008-10-06 12:40|| 2008-10-06 12:40|| Front Page Top

#20 Locally, our gas was at $2.81

It's nice, but I'm curious as to what this price drops impact is in the greater economic view.

Posted by Anon4021 2008-10-06 12:48|| 2008-10-06 12:48|| Front Page Top

#21 On the "more drilling" theme, this summer we drove from Denver to St Louis on Rt 70, and on to Kentucky on Rt 64, and we saw oil pumps pretty much the whole way.

Posted by Grunter 2008-10-06 13:07|| 2008-10-06 13:07|| Front Page Top

#22 Maybe you should invest in a nice little Surrey Deacon.

Posted by .5MT 2008-10-06 13:44|| 2008-10-06 13:44|| Front Page Top

#23 LOL, .5MT! I might have to.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2008-10-06 14:50|| 2008-10-06 14:50|| Front Page Top

#24 Still going down. Unfortunately, so is the stock market.

U.S. crude traded down $6.00, to $87.80 a barrel, at 2:30 p.m. EDT after hitting a fresh eight-month low of $87.56. London Brent crude fell $6.45 to $83.80 a barrel.

Posted by ed 2008-10-06 14:54|| 2008-10-06 14:54|| Front Page Top

#25 Unfortunately, so is the stock market.

I expect it will bounce up and down for a while. Use to do that much more. When it becomes attractive enough watch the Japanese and Chinese to start snatching up goodies. For the young'ins who weren't around last time, it was the Japanese and Europeans who did that, but it appears that the Euros are just as much in the mess and the Chinese are awash with dollars [probably enough even after all the graft] to play this time around [still being poor Commies last time sort of kept them out of the game].

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-10-06 18:07|| 2008-10-06 18:07|| Front Page Top

#26 All that US real estate the japs bought and lost their shorts......

Posted by anonymous2u 2008-10-06 19:02|| 2008-10-06 19:02|| Front Page Top

#27 Not only lost their shorts, but sold it back to Americans. Lol!

We got cars and stereos, they got green pieces of paper, which they used to buy real estate from us, which we bought back from them for $ich fewer pieces of paper.

Capitalism for the win!

Posted by Mike N. 2008-10-06 20:07|| 2008-10-06 20:07|| Front Page Top

#28 Cause in the end you usually can't move the real estate around like the paper, so you end up transferring it to someone who's usually still standing around the stuff if you don't have the patience to hold on to it or make something out of it.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-10-06 20:12|| 2008-10-06 20:12|| Front Page Top

#29 On the "more drilling" theme, this summer we drove from Denver to St Louis on Rt 70, and on to Kentucky on Rt 64, and we saw oil pumps pretty much the whole way.

That part of southern Illinois has been full of oil pumps since the Dawn of Time, i.e. when I was a kid. My sister and I used to play a car game where you counted the oil "wells" (as we thought they were) on your side of the car. Whoever got the most, won -- but if you passed a cemetery, you lost all your wells.

This got REALLY complicated somewhere on US 50 where there are pumps *inside* the cemetery.

Posted by James Watt 2008-10-06 20:54|| 2008-10-06 20:54|| Front Page Top

#30 Would that be...Welcome to Crawford County Jim? :)

Posted by Besoeker 2008-10-06 21:46|| 2008-10-06 21:46|| Front Page Top

#31 All that US real estate the japs bought and lost their shorts......

They lost their shorts in domestic (Japanese) real estate. They generally broke even or made money in US real estate. The whole reason they bought assets overseas was because domestic assets were so over-priced.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-10-06 21:56|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-10-06 21:56|| Front Page Top

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