Economy, Engineered Collapse?

[jflip2002]

Im also far from an expert on this topic. But I have noticed that in the recent month or so, its costed a lot less to fill up the tank. Also, our totals at Costco and Walmart (yes, I fucking shop at walmart) are cheaper lately. Ive had around an extra $100 or so every pay check I didnt have before. So it seems like things are either getting a little better, or Im budgeting a little more wisely.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Im also far from an expert on this topic. But I have noticed that in the recent month or so, its costed a lot less to fill up the tank. Also, our totals at Costco and Walmart (yes, I fucking shop at walmart) are cheaper lately. Ive had around an extra $100 or so every pay check I didnt have before. So it seems like things are either getting a little better, or Im budgeting a little more wisely.

The economic powers that be are oft padding the market before the election, gets us all excited for change, gives something to look forward to, why else is fuel/oil getting cheaper on the way into winter? Election year.

[eric (^__^)]

why else is fuel/oil getting cheaper on the way into winter?

- veil of mystery...

[kronus]

why else is fuel/oil getting cheaper on the way into winter? Election year.

Because teh ikanamy iz geting betar!!!11uno

In reality, it's because commodities prices are being pulled back to prevent people from panicking and leading to a *real* stock market crash. You should check out the price of gold lately - the smart money is betting on it to stay valuable through an economic collapse. Everything else is expendable.

[eric (^__^)]

so, will I make more buying gold or betting on it's market value at the ass end of our impending collapse?

[rwh11385]

Im also far from an expert on this topic. But I have noticed that in the recent month or so, its costed a lot less to fill up the tank. Also, our totals at Costco and Walmart (yes, I fucking shop at walmart) are cheaper lately. Ive had around an extra $100 or so every pay check I didnt have before. So it seems like things are either getting a little better, or Im budgeting a little more wisely.

Oil prices have been coming down. I'm looking into worldwide demand, but a lot of it *may* be not as many people speculating on it.

The USD: EUR and GBP has strengthened so perhaps those nations are curbing their consumption since oil is relatively more expensive than it was before for them... ?

http://prudentspeculations.blogspot.com/2008/06/failure-of-energy-markets.html

In an attempt to profit and hedge portfolios from inflation and a declining dollar individuals have begun to speculate in mass in the futures of oil and other commodities, along with the stocks of any company related to the resources. The resulting increase in the price of oil has only exasperated the job of the Federal Reserve, as the increase in the price of oil is putting massive inflationary pressures on the price of food and all other products that require a large amount of energy.

While I fully recognize the importance of speculators in well functioning commodity markets, I cannot help but wonder after Friday’s surge whether the energy markets in their current state can be considered well functioning. In a world gripped by fears of “peak oil” and struggling to deal with the near collapse of the credit markets such erratic price movements in such a vital commodity can have profound effects.

Increased demand in the developing world has clearly been one driver in the increase in the price of oil but as we have seen in the past, the future of the U.S. economy often dictates the future state of the world economy. This makes the current state of the price of oil even more surprising. The fact that U.S. consumption of oil is actually down from the year ago period is even more interesting as it shows the world’s largest consumer making dramatic changes to slow its consumption.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/8197...ply-and-demand

Graph of worldwide oil demand, interesting but not up to date:

http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/SijkhHsOtha63~EEOWmhH2~

[eric (^__^)]

Um...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/markets/oil/index.htm?cnn=yes

[rwh11385]

Sorry that you fail at reading comprehension and economic understanding... giant increase in federal spending = predicted higher inflation = money safe in oil, especially when surrounded by questionable faith in stocks. People are betting on oil to go up (relative to the dollar) so the demand is up and the price therefore goes up.

[eric (^__^)]

sorry you read so much into my "um"

[s0urce]

A critical - and radical - component of the bailout package proposed by the Bush administration has thus far failed to garner the serious attention of anyone in the press. Section 8 (which ironically reminds one of the popular name of the portion of the 1937 Housing Act that paved the way for subsidized affordable housing ) of this legislation is just a single sentence of thirty-two words, but it represents a significant consolidation of power and an abdication of oversight authority that's so flat-out astounding that it ought to set one's hair on fire. It reads, in its entirety:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

In short, the so-called "mother of all bailouts," which will transfer $700 billion taxpayer dollars to purchase the distressed assets of several failed financial institutions, will be conducted in a manner unchallengeable by courts and ungovernable by the People's duly sworn representatives. All decision-making power will be consolidated into the Executive Branch - who, we remind you, will have the incentive to act upon this privilege as quickly as possible, before they leave office. The measure will run up the budget deficit by a significant amount, with no guarantee of recouping the outlay, and no fundamental means of holding those who fail to do so accountable.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0..._n_128294.html

[Jordan325iC]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not :)

The problem with all that is we can't even fix our problems here at home. Everyone talks about 'controlling' this and that, but the truth is you can't 'control' criminals unless they're locked up, which we can't possibly do because we have so many stupid laws.

JPL is exactly right.

Sure, you can control individual criminals by locking them up, but you can't control crime.

United states:
Highest incarceration rate in the world.
Highest crime rate in the industrialized world.

You'd think it would be the other way around, but the fact is there are much deeper sociological factors contributing to our crime rate. Building more prisons, aggressive targeting of the "criminal" element and a streamlined justice system would have only the mildest effect on crime.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Sure, you can control individual criminals by locking them up, but you can't control crime.

United states:
Highest incarceration rate in the world.
Highest crime rate in the industrialized world.

You'd think it would be the other way around, but the fact is there are much deeper sociological factors contributing to our crime rate. Building more prisons, aggressive targeting of the "criminal" element and a streamlined justice system would have only the mildest effect on crime.

This should be a great segway into the fact that the prison system is a government controlled banking machine, to the point that the US sublets out contract prisons, enacts tougher standards to meet, more people go in, more money is made. It's a vicous cycle.

http://documentaries.videosift.com/video/American-Drug-War-The-Last-White-Hope-Full-Movie-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Drug_War:_The_Last_White_Hope

[aaron.j]

Paul was the last hope.

[Hallen]

Back to the original topic, all those things that the PO lists are simply free trade agreements designed to make it easier for us to do business. It is nothing more than that. All this talk of one NA government is silly. Look at the EU. It is NOT one government. Nobody abdicated any power when they created the EU and the Euro.

The Euro was an attempt to surpass the US dollar in buying power and to change the world's valuation of oil from dollars to euros. It was an attempt to wrest economic power from the US.

The illegals in the US is a political hotbed for DC to toy with. It costs too much to keep them out and a bunch of people don't want them sent back. The only answer is for Mexico to get its shit together and stop being such an inept and corrupt socialized oligarchy. Until the point where living conditions are reasonably similar (like Canada and the US), then you will always have an illegal immigration problem and you will always have simple labor type jobs exported.

The US doesn't need an "Amero". Europe didn't need a "Euro" either, but they wanted control over the oil market and to knock us back a peg, so they did it (plus, they are all such small nations physically, that travel between them is very common and things just get easier if you only have one currency to use).

[DCColegrove]

Economy, Engineered Collapse?

Would this surprise anyone???