Gas dip for drivers

Something happened today that I wondered if it would ever happen again…In case you missed this headline news item, oil fell below $130 per barrel today! That prompted a rally on Wall Street. In a related note, high prices seem to be driving demand down. U.S. drivers this month are driving 5% less than a year ago. So maybe the law of supply, demand, and prices really works– even when it comes to gas.

By the way, if you really want to follow gas price trends, let me recommend that you regularly check out our gas data center. We’ve put a great deal of work gathering sources of info and data to give you a comprehensive picture of gas price trends and related info. Our plans are to continually expand it. Visit our gas data center and you’ll find such information as:

* The cheapest gas price at your location!
* National price trends;
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Brothel bonus free gas

Gas Gone Wild??

Everyone seems to be using free gas as a promotion to get new customers and to keep old ones. Well, in the “that’s amazing” department now apparently the madam at a local brothel has jumped (is that the right word?) <g> on the bandwagon…

The Shady Lady Ranch is a brothel in Nevada that has found an innovative way to keep business coming back in hard times. At Shady Lady they are offering free gas coupons in exchange for business and the “green coupons” that pay for…well you know…what brothels have to offer…Full article here.

Back to more conservative, “less shady” uses of free gas promotions, here are a few more….

Get this…even churches now are cashing in and counting new converts and increased attendance at prayer meetings (we could ask them to pray for lower prices!) by using free gas promotional approaches. Read the whole holy story here..

And of course, on the sports front, they are using free gas coupons as well-the Nets say they will give away more than $250,000 worth of free gas to new season ticket holders.

“This is our way to give back to our fans and to make sure they have a great summer heading into next season,” says Nets CEO Brett Yormark. Read the whole story here.

What crazy free gas promotion will we hear about next? If you know of any, tell us and leave your comments here…

Gas prices versus demand

What is the impact of lower demand for gasoline on gas prices? You would think that lower demand means lower prices but is that always the case?

Here’s a summary of an article about this from USA today:

- WASHINGTON — A decline in Americans’ demand for gasoline is keeping record prices from skyrocketing even further, a USA TODAY analysis of gas and oil prices shows. If crude oil prices come down, refiners and retailers say they will seek to recoup their losses, and the price at the pump is likely to remain high.

Here’s some related stories on this issue…what do you think?

Gas prices

So we have two competing theories of how to bring down the cost of oil, increased supply or decreased demand (the decreased demand is the European solution of high taxes on gas). The increase in supply is straightforward, although some …

The world in general.

Do I like paying higher prices? NO but I do understand supply v. demand as well as what is a need and a want. We as Americans are truly spoiled and want to live extravagant lifestyles as long as we do not have to pay the piper.

gas prices / offshore drilling

Now, price must drop until demand increases enough to match demand with supply, and again, it takes a big price change to make a small demand change. So expanding our supply of oil by a little bit can have a big impact on prices at the …

Soaring Gas Price Will Push Millions Off the Road, Says CIBC Report

“With half of the world’s population never having to pay world oil prices, it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that $130 per barrel crude prices have yet to quash world demand. And the only supply response to date has been yet another …

High Gas Prices and Your Future

It’s the way of things, the writer added: “When supply and demand go through their natural fall and gas seems cheap again, people will buy big cars.” Today’s oil troubles are unlikely to fade away like the 1970s Arab oil embargo. …

What Exactly is an Oil Speculator?

That was the supply side, what about demand? The key talking point here is leverage. Leverage allows any investor to supplement their investment by borrowing to invest more. If I wanted to buy a contract for a barrel of oil at $100 I …

News: Federal Reserve Expects Gas and Food Prices to Drop Soon

“In those countries where strong commodity demands are associated with rapid growth in aggregate demand that outstrips potential supply, actions to contain inflation by restraining aggregate demand would contribute to global price …

Pay attention! The real deal on gas prices

The law of supply and demand applies to oil prices, but it also applies to oil futures. Futures markets operate on commitments to buy so much of a commodity on a certain date at a certain price. By way of example, soy is a futures …

John Sharp: Let Marketplace Govern Energy Industry

With these tax policies, American free markets will amaze the world with our energy production, including all forms of alternative energy, and the laws of supply and demand will bring adequate energy at a fair price.

Gas City, IN uses golf carts

It’s amazing how creative and innovative we Americans can be when faced with a problem or challenge, like the high gas price dilemma we’re all in…This just in from Gas City, Indiana (yes there really is a place named “Gas City).

People in Gas City have begun puttering around town in, all of things, golf carts! The police chief there has just given a draft ordinance to the City Council to regulate the use of golf carts on city streets! (Things must be slow at the council). What are the regulations? I don’t know but, using a little imagination, I can guess what one of the regulations could be- When throwing your groceries into the back of your golf cart, be sure to yell to all your neighbors puttering around “for”…or is it “four”…You can tell I’m not a golfer.

What would Tiger Woods do?…

Is this post funny? I really don’t know because I’m dead tired after spending five hours driving one of my kids into Brooklyn for soccer practice, across the dreaded BQE (for non-New Yorkers that stands for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, otherwise known as “driving congestion hell!).

It’s late and I accomplished my goal of a daily post…good night until tomorrow’s post!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Amtrak demand high

Several years ago my wife and I did something unusual- we decided to take the Amtrak train to New Orleans for some training for a new business we wanted to start. And I have to tell you the trip was one of the most relaxing, pleasant experiences we’ve had in long time. The pace was a lot slower than the hustle and bustle of taking the plane- or the wear and tear of driving to get there.

At the time we wondered why more folks didn’t take vacations by train. As we reflected on the state of the railroad business at the time, we talked about how the train business had dwindled down to a shadow of its former self. Why? Planes were faster, people liked the personal nature of driving in their own cars, and running a railroad was expensive for the operators since most trains never ran at capacity.

But the world has changed and demand for rail travel has expanded quickly because of gas prices. I predict the same for shipping. Shipping by rail I speculate is alot more energy efficient than by trucks.

Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.

Here’s a recent news story about the railroad business, specifically Amtrak– With fuel prices going up, and consumers feeling the squeeze at the pump and at the airport, ridership for Amtrak is on the rise. That’s the good news. The bad news is that years of Republican attempts to drown Amtrak in the bathtub have resulted in it having difficulty to meet the growing demand.

But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand.Many of the long-distance trains are already sold out for some days this summer. Want to take Amtrak’s daily Crescent train from New York to New Orleans? It is sold out on July 5, 6, 7 and 8. Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 5? The train is sold out, but Amtrak will sell you a bus ticket.

“We’re starting to bump up against our own capacity constraints,” said R. Clifford Black, a spokesman for Amtrak.The first point that needs to be made is that rail is a viable option. This is a lesson Europeans learned a long time ago. Portland has light rail, the Max, and Sound Transit is working to bring a viable light rail system to the Puget Sound Region. Both should be expanded. I’ve been to Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco and in every city I didn’t use a car, I used rail. Los Angeles even started putting in light rail before I moved here 6 years ago. If you want to be a “major-league” city, get yourself a light rail system.

The other point that needs to be made is that our Democratic-controlled Congress should expand funding for commuter rail because with the cost of oil not coming down anytime soon, the airlines are going to continue nickel and diming passengers until only the rich can fly. With additional fees for checked baggage and United Airlines’ recent announcement that it will require minimum stays, David Goldstein probably has it right:Better carry a shitload of quarters with you the next time you fly folks, just in case the plane loses cabin pressure and you have to feed the goddamn coin slot on the oxygen mask.

Can pay toilets on airliners be far off? And if people are paying to use the toilet, don’t you think they’ll feel entitled to smoke in the lavatories? Who really wants to travel that way?

With the state of our fossil-fuel based economy the way it is, it’s time to start thinking about other transit options, including building and/or expanding commuter rail. As we do that, perhaps Amtrak should be reconsidered as well.

And while we’re at it, can Sound Transit please have the Sounder stop at the Olympia station for all those commuters in Thurston County who work in Seattle?

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So Americans will probably spend more time on trains going to work or taking a vacation. What do you think?

Related articles below:

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Gas prices and consumer behavior

A new study, “IRI Times & Trends Special Report: Competing in a Transforming Economy,” found 53 percent of consumers report that they are cooking from scratch more now than they were six months ago and about 59 percent say they are buying fewer single-serving products, and 55 percent say they are buying fewer prepared meals, indicating bargains are more important than convenience and health, according to MediaPost.

Isn’t that what you might expect? Heck, with gas prices as high as they are, consumers have to do something? Let me ask you a question- how has your behavior and attitude changed because of high gas prices? Also, what other changes do you think we can expect as gas prices go higher.

Click here for the complete IRI story from Media Post Marketing Daily

Irrational about gas?

I stopped by a nearb outdoor sporting goods supplier’s store yesterday to get my car outfitted to carry my sailboat and I began to speak with the owner. He pointed out that some folks are now towing their boats with a motorcycle instead of a van to save money. In fact companies are making boat trailers exactly for the reason of allowing motorcycle towing.

This same store owner at the store called Helisport added something he was doing about the high price of gas. He told me he had adapted his car engine to give him 60 miles a gallon. I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to get the details but his approach about the gas price got me to thinking about how other folks are dealing with the gas crisis.

I  learned today from CNN Money that folks in California were driving to Mexico to get cheaper gas even though if one considers lost time and the wear and tear on the car it didn’t make sense. Another story was told about how people are trading in their SUVs less than three years old even though SUV resale value is extremely low- another irrational gas decision.

On the CNN Money show today, CNN’s guest Daniele Arriele, behavioral ecomomist, spoke about irrational behavior on the part of consumers as it relates to money. He recently published a book called “Predictably Irrational“. (By the way, you can find an interview with Arriele from Amazon, by clicking here.

In thinking about how you are reacting about gas prices and how your friends have been acting, share some stories and tell me if you think the stories are rational or not.

See a related story from the Fayetteville NC observer where Arriele is interviewed about gas prices. In this article, Arrelle says he doesn’t see comsumers making major changes because of gas prices.