insideyourusa.com

This Memorial Day weekend there are less cars on the road because people simply cannot afford to drive to family like they used to.  Remember when we were jumping up and down red in the face trying to figure out how we could afford gas if it got to $2.00 a gallon?  That wasn’t even a decade ago yet it would feel like a bargain to buy gas for $3.25 right now for most consumers and it doesn’t look as though it is headed that way.

It is a big mess of pass the buck.  Unfortunately Americans have less and less bucks to pass as soaring fuel prices don’t only affect their travel but the goods they need to buy.

Big oil says their profitably is only 4 cents on the dollar so it isn’t their record profits that are causing high prices.  Nobody seems to ask why it is that when gas was $1.00 a gallon they were ok with making the 4 cents a gallon and now they have 4 times the profit because gas is 4 times the price.  Profit is on a sliding scale people wake up!

OPEC says they see no need to increase production.  There is no evidence to support the need.  Someone please buy a TV set to place at OPEC.  Five minutes of our 24 hour news cycle and the would see the need.  Of course if keeping the production levels low makes them more money what incentive do they have?  Even if we could buy elsewhere China would buy what we stopped buying so OPEC wouldn’t be hurt.

The Government says they feel our pain as we the people pay for gas and jet fuel for their travel.  I don’t claim to know the answer but something needs to happen.  People will not tolerate this for long because they simply can’t afford it.

Going into hurricane season we have just another excuse to raise the price of oil even higher.  Mark my words if a large hurricane comes anywhere near us gas will shoot up again.

That brings me to the last pass the buck.  The futures market.  Everyone from day traders to your investment portfolio have been pushing the oil up in price.  As long as it stays hot there is no way to get oil to come back down.  Everyone says simple supply and demand is the issue and they are right if they are talking about the futures market.  We need to insist that the people that manage our investments sell our interest in oil futures if we ever want to make a dent in this problem.

Are any one of those issues the cause and the end all solution?  No of course not.  They are all the problem and reasonable prices will not come back until each and every one of the problems are addressed.