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Talk of $200/barrel for oil, $6/gallon at pump! |
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Written by Terri Hall
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
Link to article here. Oil's Rapid Rise Stirs Talk of $200 a Barrel This Year Long List of Factors Keeps Prices High; Releasing Reserves? By NEIL KING JR. Wall Street Journal July 7, 2008; Page A6 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. (See related article.) 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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High gas prices = death of the suburbs as economics forces change |
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Written by Terri Hall
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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Link to article here.
It's obvious to everyone but road builders and politicians that $4 a
gallon for gas is the breaking point for Americans. There is no more
money in the family budget for transportation, and it's causing major
lifestyle changes and the emptying of one's savings account just to
fill the gas tank today.
There just aren't enough motorists with the discretionary income to
make toll roads financially viable any longer. The massive amounts of
leveraged debt to erect these toll projects is a house of cards the
size of the mortgage crisis or BIGGER. We all know who bailed that out,
we, the taxpayers, did. Time to head this crisis off at the pass and
defeat this push for toll roads NOW!
America's love affair fades as the car becomes burden of suburbia
By Paul Harris
The Observer (UK)
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The nation of road movies, freeway freedom and dreams of endless
horizons is waking up to the reality of soaring fuel prices. Paul
Harris in Riverside, California, reports that people are leaving their
gas guzzlers in the garageIt is known as the Inland Empire: a vast
stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles.
Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of
jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.
But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is
under way. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality:
America's all-consuming love affair with the car is fading.
Surging petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have
failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now,
facing $4-a-gallon fuel, they have no choice. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
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Jobs slashed, not the time for toll roads |
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Written by Terri Hall
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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Link to article here.
Employers cut jobs for 6th straight month
By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press
7/3/2008
Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month
of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The
unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.
The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor
Department on Thursday, showed continued caution on the part of
employers who are chafing under high energy prices and are uncertain
about how long the economy will be stuck in a sluggish mode, reflecting
fallout from housing, credit and financial troubles.
Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial
services, along with cuttbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in
education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government. |
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