[HoosierRon]

Stocks tumble on $134 oil

Early in the day, stocks began falling on the surging price of oil, which shot up more than $4 and breached $134 a barrel for the first time on the futures market Wednesday.

'Squawk Box' Guest Warns of $12-15-a-Gallon Gas

“The prices that we’re paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be ‘the good old days,’ because others who watch this very closely forecast that we’re going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon,” Hirsch said. “And then, after that, when oil – world oil production goes into decline, we’re going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we’re not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.”

Hirsch told the Business & Media Institute the $12-$15 a gallon wasn’t his prediction, but that he was citing Charles T. Maxwell, described as the “Dean of Oil Analysts” and the senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co. Still, Hirsch admitted the high price was inevitable in his view.

“I don’t attempt to predict oil prices because it’s been impossible in the past,” Hirsch said in an e-mail. “We’re into a new era now, and over the next roughly five years the trend will be up significantly. However, there may be dips and bumps that no one can forecast; I wouldn’t be at all surprised. To me the multi-year upswing is inevitable.”

Maxwell’s original $12-15-a-gallon prediction came in a February 5 interview with Energytechstocks.com, a Web site run by two former Wall Street Journal staffers.

“He said that, unlike the recession the U.S. appears to be in today, ‘This will not be six months of hell and then we come out of it.’ Rather, Maxwell expects this financial crisis to last at least 10 or 12 years, as the world goes through a prolonged period of price-induced rationing (eg, oil up to $300 a barrel and U.S. pump prices up to $15 a gallon).

 

[likearock00]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

At 12-15 $/gal, the world's economy would crumble and would cease to exist as we know it. No country will be able to become independant from fuel and we will all regress back into the 1800's.

 

[BryceStrong]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

I can't read either article yet, but I don't believe that gas will top $10 per gallon. I don't think it will go much higher than $4.00 anytime soon. The market can't support ridiculously high fuel prices.

 

[Ronald McChevy]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

I can't read either article yet, but I don't believe that gas will top $10 per gallon. I don't think it will go much higher than $4.00 anytime soon. The market can't support ridiculously high fuel prices.

Isn't that kind of like saying "It isn't going to rain tomorrow because people don't like getting wet."

 

[CHASLS2]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

At 12-15 $/gal, the world's economy would crumble and would cease to exist as we know it. No country will be able to become independant from fuel and we will all regress back into the 1800's.

Like i said before oil could end all life as we know it. I think we could see a full world wide nuk war over oil one of these years.

 

[BryceStrong]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Isn't that kind of like saying "It isn't going to rain tomorrow because people don't like getting wet."

No. A commodity can be listed for any price but that's no guarantee of buyers, no matter how necessary the commodity is. Meaning: if there's no money to pay for gas then gas can't be bought. And I think that the powers that be are intelligent enough to realize their situation. The only altnernative is "peak oil" which, by my guess, is no different than an asteroid hitting the earth.

 

[XP300]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

There's only one thing we can do .... Let's invade someone and take all their oil. Na, we tried that already and it didn't work.

OK, we could drill for new oil here. That won't work either, they will only allow us to drill for oil in downtown Detroit.

I think I'll go to the Midevil Times Restaurant tomorrow to see how we're all going to live. :clap:

 

[JBsZ06]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Iraq, saudi arabia, Kuwiat all need to pay back our good will over the years and give us "FREE Oil"

JMO

 

[Carver]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

CHASLS2 and likearock00, you guys are going a little overboard here. Yeah, $15 gas would be horrible for most people, but society would adjust. The movement back to the cities would accelerate, personal vehicles would become rarer, and many products would just be more expensive, and people would have to prioritize. The economy however would continue to stumble forward.

 

[HoosierRon]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

There's only one thing we can do .... Let's invade someone and take all their oil. Na, we tried that already and it didn't work.

We did? Remind me which country it was where we "took" all of its oil.

I don't want to let facts get in the way or anything, but...

The country’s Oil Ministry will shortly invite international oil companies to bid for contracts to help Iraq to boost output at its investment-starved “super-giant” oilfields. Production is expected to pass the prewar level of 2.6 million barrels by the end of the year, and Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi Oil Minister, told The Times that he expected production to reach six million barrels a day within four years.

The International Monetary Fund predicts that Iraq’s economy, boosted by rising oil revenues, will grow by more than 7 per cent this year, compared with 1.3 per cent last year.

A new report from the US Inspector-General says that the Iraqi Government will receive a $15 billion (£7.5 billion) windfall to help its reconstruction efforts thanks to soaring oil prices.

 

[EldoFan]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

CHASLS2 and likearock00, you guys are going a little overboard here. Yeah, $15 gas would be horrible for most people, but society would adjust. The movement back to the cities would accelerate, personal vehicles would become rarer, and many products would just be more expensive, and people would have to prioritize. The economy however would continue to stumble forward.

'Stumble' being the operative term in this event.......

Sometimes I wish the speculators could get cut out.......go ahead and jack up the prices on everything else with your BS figures......even with the demand in Asia, I doubt we'd be hurting this much if there was no speculation.....

 

[fallkin]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Like i said before oil could end all life as we know it. I think we could see a full world wide nuk war over oil one of these years.

You mean something Armaggeddon-like where China uses it's over 200 million man army to secure this resource in the Middle East? I'm sure they've built that road to the Middle East to sell all the Arabs toasters and such.

 

[fallkin]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Iraq, saudi arabia, Kuwiat all need to pay back our good will over the years and give us "FREE Oil"

JMO

They probably feel they gave us 'free' oil from around 1992 thru 2005, maybe even all the way back to the early 80's after the oil crisis was done. I remember me pumping gas at the full-serve for something like 75 cents a gallon back in '88.

 

[Ming]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

They probably feel they gave us 'free' oil from around 1992 thru 2005, maybe even all the way back to the early 80's after the oil crisis was done. I remember me pumping gas at the full-serve for something like 75 cents a gallon back in '88.

It was 89 cents a gallon here in Houston around 1999 for at least a few weeks. And I owned a 4-door Chevy Metro THEN because I liked saving on gas.

I could fill up, and commute in traffic all week for 8 bucks a tank.

 

[wildgoosechase]

Gas will not reach that high unless inflation pushes it there, and if so wages will eventually rise to compensate. The more realistict scenario is gas raises to $5.00/gallon and cellulose ethanol based E85 goes for $3.00/gallon and everyone buys new cars.

 

[ARCANGEL]

i agree there is no way the powers that be would allow the prices to get that high economic infrastructures would crumble.

 

[BrickTamland]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

'Stumble' being the operative term in this event.......

Sometimes I wish the speculators could get cut out.......go ahead and jack up the prices on everything else with your BS figures......even with the demand in Asia, I doubt we'd be hurting this much if there was no speculation.....

Yes, that would be awesome.

I would accuse Maxwell of being an oil company puppet, but even the oil companies know a figure that ridiculous will not be bought into. I think he is a few cans of Coke short of a Fridgepack.

 

[steinravnik]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Isn't that kind of like saying "It isn't going to rain tomorrow because people don't like getting wet."

No, because of supply/demand. I think he was saying that at if prices go much higher, demand will decline, creating a counter to prices going higher. I'm not sure if this is true, but an analogy to rain is not correct.

 

[logansowner]

Re: Oil tops $134; gasoline to reach $12-$15 per gallon

Isn't that kind of like saying "It isn't going to rain tomorrow because people don't like getting wet."

Not at all, if gas gets to 12 bucks a gallon, nobody will be able to afford to go to work, nobody will be able to afford groceries and certainly there wont be any more "I bought it because I want it".

So nobody can afford to buy anything anymore, diesel is so expensive we all live off Kraft dinner and can't afford to drive to work, then the economy really hits a recession. At which point, nobody will be buying gas, and then, even the big bad oil companies have to lower prices.

Right now a family just getting buy on their $10/hr jobs, buying gas to get to such job. At 12/gallon a person making $30,000 a year is going to be in the same boat.

Even if we can survive, what kind of life is it if you work 10 hours a day to just pay the bills and eat enough to live? That isn't what a 1st world country is, believe it or not, we do NEED the things everyone says you don't need. If nobody is buying that big screen TV, or the $300 Ipods, what's going to happen to our retail industry?

$12/gallon simply will not work. Regardless of whether everyone drove a Cobalt or not, is still can't be done.

 

[ARCANGEL]

the trend now for the average american is downsizing! Suv's are for sale everywhere you look. People are not going out to eat half as much as they used to (resturaunt sales are down 40%) Geo Metro's are popular used cars. If Gas goes any higher than 5 dollars there will be serious economic ripples!