Source: Wash Times

The turmoil in the Middle East … the Federal Reserve’s decision to further devalue the U.S. dollar through a third round of “quantitative easing” (QE3), and rising oil prices are combining to create a toxic economic brew that could send the global economy into recession.

That was the assessment of International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol. “I see the [oil] prices today, in this economic context, as unbearable for consumers,” said Birol on Friday. “High prices together with other factors could push the global economy back into recession.” …

However, in some ways, Mr. Obama should be claiming credit. As Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the Wall Street Journal back in 2008, the goal all along has been to explode U.S. gas prices to the $6 to $8 a gallon prices found in Europe. “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Mr. Chu said.

Full Article: (more…)

Source: SPPI

Exporting gasoline and diesel fuel creates jobs and prosperity

Paul Driessen

When President Obama took office, regular gasoline cost $1.85 a gallon. Now it’s hit $4.00 per gallon in many cities, and some analysts predict it could reach $5.00 or more this summer. Filling your tank could soon slam you for $75-$90.

Winter was warm. Our economy remains weak. People are driving less, in cars that get better mileage, even with mandatory 10% low-mileage ethanol. Gasoline is plentiful.

Misinformed politicians and pundits say prices should be falling. Our pain at the pump is due to greedy speculators, they claim, and greedier oil companies that are exporting oil and refined products.

Their explanation is superficially plausible – but wrong. (more…)

Source:  Master Resource

Source:  Master Resource

Ministry of Price Controls

Source:  http://www.cgfi.org/2011/07/no-mystery-to-non-recovery-by-dennis-t-avery/

I’m tired of reading about the American economy’s “mysterious” non-recovery. The lack of recovery isn’t mysterious at all. The economy hates uncertainty, and Obama has introduced more economic uncertainty than we’ve had since Hoover and Roosevelt started violating the law of supply and demand 80 years ago.

Our present crisis was caused by federal policies demanding that banks make bad housing loans to people who couldn’t afford their mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s $500 billion in mortgage losses still haven’t been added to federal red ink totals—and both are still out there incurring more losses. Consequently we don’t know what a house is worth, now or tomorrow. (more…)

Source:  Red State

Everybody is asking that question these days. The average nationwide price for all grades this week is $3.96/gallon; Californians are paying on average $4.26, the highest in the nation.

Why does it cost so much, especially considering that the price was below $2.00/gallon just within the last couple of years?

Nearly seventy percent of the price of a gallon of retail gasoline is the price of the crude oil it is refined from. Two graphs from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) make that point. The first shows the price of a gallon of gasoline (left axis) plotted against the price of a gallon of crude oil (right axis). The two move in virtual lock-step; if you know the crude oil price per gallon, add $1.00 and you’ll know the price of gasoline within a few cents. (At $105 per 42-gallon barrel, the per-gallon price of crude is $2.50; add a buck, and you get a gasoline price around $3.50.) (more…)