Gas Price

[AdironRider]

I just don't see how they come up with that crap. Maybe those on super tight budgets or poor are changing their spending habits. But a good part of the country that isn't living pay check to pay check and has reasonably good finances are not adjusting their spending habits due to paying an extra buck or two at the pump for fuel. I know where they are going with this but I think the more likely result is the money is coming from not saving or perhaps not paying down debts rather than not spending. Or at the very least, the reality lies somewhere in between.

I believe the figure is every .10 rise in gas prices, not .01.

I think you are right on an emotional level. Most people (I fall into this bracket) havent been hit that hard emotionally with gas. I pay what I need to pay and get on with my day.



That being said, on a strictly economic sense, it makes a big difference. Regardless of where the money was coming from, more money spent on gas is less money spent elsewhere in the economy. We are not a country of savers, so it wasn't that. We are approaching debt levels seen pre-crisis these days. So we havent become savers either.

[ctenidae]

Interstingly, it seems that Saudi Arabia is about to send "a wall of oil" at us to cut prices. Not sure how 22 million barrels (2 days of total US imports, 20 or so of Saudi Arabia's typical daily imports) is going to really impact prices, but it couldn't hurt. Of more interest in the article is the reactivation of old fields and increased storage outside of the Middle East. What do they know/worry about Iran that we're not paying attention to?

[Nick]

What about all the money we saved on heating oil this winter. WTF.