Black Silver Lining

I love a good chart:

Oil is literally half the price it was just 3 months ago. This is great news for a couple of reasons.

First, of course, is that our gas is already costing us less. And we like that.

Second, and far more importantly, it shows a dramatic shift in pricing power out of the hands of oil producers (i.e. OPEC) and into the hands of oil consumers (i.e. you and me). We have shown (albeit unintentionally) that conservation measures that reduce demand for oil can have a huge impact on the market price. And pricing power is real power.

So, what do we do with that kind of power? Beats me, but the only man with a plan who I see out there beating the drum is T. Boone. So I'm with him.

Go Rotary!

But whatever we do we should do it soon. Circumstances will continue to change with time.

Tuesday Quick Numbers

As of Today:

BRENT CRUDE FUTR (USD/bbl.) - 75.030
WTI CRUDE FUTURE (USD/bbl.) - 79.350

GAS - Georgia October 14th:
Regular $3.20 (Last week: $3.72)
Premium $3.51 (Last week: $4.08)
Last year: $2.69 / $2.96


Unemployment Rate: 6.1% in Sep 2008

Inflation - 5.4%

Dow Jones Industial - 9,311

More Glimmers of Hope

Crude Oil prices as of this morning:

BRENT CRUDE FUTR (USD/bbl.) 78.800

WTI CRUDE FUTURE (USD/bbl.) 82.280

Side note - These are both prices for one barrel of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Brent is from the North Sea, north of Scotland and WTI is from Texas. Both are considered "sweet crudes" meaning lower sulfer content, which makes refining cheaper and yields more gasoline per barrel. Generally, WTI (West Texas Intermediate) has been considered the "benchmark" price that you will hear newsies quote when they give a single price for oil in their reports.

This is good news for lots of reasons. First because there will be more money in your pocket after gassing the car, but also because the trend is declining, which means supply is exceeding demand and the price will continue downward.

So, I'd say it's too early to give up all hope.

No Barack For You

Oil Oil Oil!

Spindletop

You can buy oil right now for $93 a barrel!

At the risk of becoming a conspiracy theorist, I have a suspicion, born of nothing but common sense and the brain God gave me, that the oil industry does not want Barack Obama leading the US, and will push oil prices down to help the economy before the election.

Six weeks ago I called $80/bbl by November 1st. But we may see it sooner.

Speaking of which, I am onboard with the Pickens Plan to make America energy independent. Check it out and please join! You can look it over by clicking here.

Iraqi Oil Well - American Soldiers

Wednesday Catch-up Potpourri

Iraqi Kids Enjoy Summer Vacation

Akbar has to be the American next!

Dana Perino Canonized!

I'm really really sorry about those earlier posts.

Barack and Hillary Make Up

Obama Eager To Meet Hillary Supporters

And so is Bill!

Weird Stuff That's "In"

http://www.trucknutz.com/

Don't blame me, I'm just the messenger, here.

Words I Had To Look Up Recently

Lede - this one is not in my dictionary or Wikipedia. Apparently it is uniquely used by journalists to refer to the opening sentence or paragraph of a story. (Lawyers call this the "commencement.") There are 2 theories on why it is spelled this way. First is that publishers intentionally misspelled it to distinguish it from the heavy metal "lead" that was the material fixed type was made of. Second is that "lede" was the original spelling of the word "lead" (the verb "to lead") until the 1500's, and the original spelling only survives in this context.

Temporal - this word has several meanings, but the one I was looking for is basically "chronological," as in time.

Keeping Track

Crude Oil is at $136.80 a barrel.