Friday, November 14, 2008

Crude Oil

For the 17th week since July 4, gasoline has been falling below the $2 a gallon price in many states. The price of crude oil tumbled below $60 a barrel. This is a 20 month low. Light, sweet crude oil for December delivery fell $3.08 to settle at $59.33 a barrel, the lowest closing price since March 2007.

While consumers worried about a weak job market and slumping investments are grateful for the price relief, economic reports increasingly suggest they are hanging onto whatever savings they see at the pump. I know we are. We aren't buying anything we don't absolutely need. We drive less, buy less groceries and eat out less.

I think the reason the price is down is because the other countries are afraid we will drill and have more oil than they have and we won't buy from them anymore. In fact, if they would drill here, we could be selling oil to other countries and not putting billions into the hands of other countries who hate us. I think I saw in the paper this morning that crude is down to $56 a barrel now. We can only hope it stays down as they promise us higher heating bills this winter and where is all the extra money going to come from to pay these bills?

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