The price of oil is continuing it's downward trend. Oil dropped almost ten dollars a barrel this week to $115 a barrel. Apparently this is due to a strengthing dollar. The Dow also gained 300 points on Friday. However it dropped around 225 on Thursday so I'll let you decided if that gain really means anything.
Gas prices are down $32 from its record highs, and it appears that gas prices will continue to drop for the rest of the summer. "We're probably going to see gasoline at the retail level around $3.50 for Labor Day," said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com." Of course gas will be cheaper in the South where I live.
If the dollar continues to strengthen and gas prices continue to drop we should be out of this economic slowdown by next summer. I don't think it takes an economics degree to figure that out.
Open Thread
1 day ago
I agree that falling oil prices is a better salve for our economy than any rebate checks. Here in SC, gas is already down to about $3.60 a gallon. Maybe if we're really lucky it'll get back down to $3.00 sometime this winter. Lord knows I could use the extra cash.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the dollar strengthening again -- what did we get down to, like 2:1 against the Euro?
That said, we're not out of the woods on the housing/banking crisis. I'd expect to see some more pretty substantial losses there during this quarter.
We've got to find a way to get more money into the hands of the middle class, though. Lower gas prices are a start, but I still say we've got to provide relief on health care and college costs. Then maybe when can start to see some robust growth. Especially if we invest heavily into alternative energies. That's worth a couple million jobs right there, I'd bet.
I'm against any more rebate checks. I mean we can't give away money everytime we have a economic slowdown. What happens if we ever do really have a recession at some point. I'm all for alternative energies have been all along.
ReplyDelete