You think you're mad now about gasoline prices

Oil's Rapid Rise Stirs Talk of $200 a Barrel This Year
Oil's historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could reach $200 a barrel by the end of the year. Oil at that price would wreak deeper havoc on the world's airlines and automobile industries. In the U.S., $200 crude would push the price of gasoline to well over $6 a gallon, causing commuters to alter their driving habits more sharply than they have already, while putting extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy. In Europe, it would stir more political unrest and increase the clamor to cut the continent's stiff petrol taxes. In Asia, governments would be under pressure to cut fuel subsidies and risk a popular backlash.
U.S. benchmark crude prices leapt 3.6% last week, closing before the Independence Day holiday at a record $145.29 a barrel. Roughly halfway through the year, oil prices have soared 50% since Jan. 1 and have doubled since the same time last year.
Few oil watchers are now ready to bet that oil will hit $200 a barrel by New Year's Eve. But nearly all are wary of predicting how and when oil's upward stampede will be reversed.
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Liam said...
Oil prices will drop when the speculators find that their other investments start to go in rapid downfall.

The Man said...

Lets hope that's the way it will go and soon.

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Oil-Rich United Arab Emirates Cancels Total Iraq Debt
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates canceled billions of dollars of Iraqi debt Sunday and moved to restore a full diplomatic mission in Baghdad, evidence of Iraq's improved security and growing acceptance of its Shiite-led government.
The Emirates' official news agency, WAM, quoted the president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as saying he hoped canceling the debt would lighten the "economic burden" facing Iraqis and he urged the country to unite behind al-Maliki's government.
WAM said the debt was $4 billion excluding interest. A UAE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the total debt was $7 billion with interest.

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TimO said...
RE the Iraqi debt cancellation:

Everyone get raging at national debts, but they forget one simple fact---- they are imaginary numbers. Countries simply wipe them off the books all the time.

They are only numbers on a page held at the convenience of the bookkeepers and essentially meaningless.

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The Man said...

That might be true however, the money has to come from some place. The price of oil is up all over the world so everyone is actually paying off the Iraq's debt.