American stock markets opened higher on Tuesday while crude oil prices rose above $50 a barrel, their highest levels in more than a month, before falling back slightly.
Oil prices plunged from their summer peaks of $145 a barrel as the economic downturn spread, but they have rebounded from their lows as motorists took advantage of lower gasoline prices. A dispute over natural gas between Russia and Ukraine and a production cut by the OPEC cartel of 2.2 million barrels a day have highlighted concerns about tightening energy supplies.
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My advice? You could prepay for your gas while it’s cheap, if only we knew it worked. How about just keep looking for ways to keep your fuel usage to a minimum until we can figure out an effective alternative energy source.
Oil prices tumbled below $38 a barrel Tuesday on fresh evidence of weakness in the U.S. housing market and a shrinking gross domestic product that suggests the recession may be worsening.
Prices have fallen 73 percent since July, with massive job layoffs and weak consumer spending eating away at energy use. Continue reading →
Oil prices tumbled under $40 a barrel and stocks held steady Thursday as traders returned their attention to the weakening demand picture for fuel.
The move comes on the heels of a record production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Wednesday. But even that was not enough to assuage widespread fears that the weakening global economy will keep crude and products refined from it under pressure for months to come.Continue reading →
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but gas prices have dropped. I remember in July, it had reached record high prices. What is going on here? Now that we’re in a recession, oil companies start magically dropping prices? Shady, is all that comes to mind. What does this mean for consumers? What does this mean for our economy? Now that oil is trading at less than $45, it’s the lowest since January of 2005!
What does this mean for consumers?
According to Tripso:
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No more fuel surcharges. Any remaining fuel surcharges, either for airlines or cruise lines, must be eliminated soon. Travelers also expect these companies to hedge their fuel responsibly, so that future
price increases will be factored into the cost of a ticket. In other words, the public won’t tolerate any sudden and retroactive fuel surcharges in the future, because we’ve already had our warning. Continue reading →
There was a time when I was broke and living in New Zealand. The $300 dollar car we bought off some dude with dreads broke down. We didn’t have a form of transportation to take us to our surfing destinations.
What did we do? We hitch hiked. We walked out our door, and we stuck our thumbs out. Sometimes we were lucky, and sometimes we weren’t. But you know what? We always made it to our destination on time. In more
friendlier terms, it’s called ride sharing, except we didn’t have social networking platforms to help us do that.
A new startup, called Hitchers 2.0, found a solution. According to TechCrunch:
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No matter how you slice it, getting to the airport is a painful and often costly endeavor. Public transportation may be the “greenest” and least expensive option, but it often involves lengthy waits, cramped shuttles, and the possibility of a missed connection that could kill your trip before it even gets started. Group vans will usually pick you up at your doorstep, but they’ll swing by a half dozen other stops on the way. And while door-to-door taxi service may eliminate most of these hassles, you’ll be paying a high price for the convenience.
AAA says that gas prices have fallen for 51 straight days — and that the current average price is $2.31 per gallon. The current price is the lowest the nation has seen since February of 2007, and is 43.8% lower than the record high of $4.11 set during July of this year.
Despite the lower prices, demand for gasoline continues to drop, according to MasterCard. They said that credit card swipes at gas stations were down 3.9% compared to last year. We can only imagine, with horror, what this slowdown is doing to “meat snack” sales
Remember when gas was over $4? People started driving less. They started carpooling. They became addicted to the Hybrid cards. They started taking the bus. People were conscious. People knew that
depending on oil was dictating their lives. People changed their behaviors and were content and happy. I can say this was true up until a couple of weeks ago, when gas prices were still hovering around $3.50.
Now that gas prices have fallen under $3.00, even as low as $2.19 in some states, people are returning to their old consuming ways.
My coworker’s Jaguar broke down: $2500. My friend’s car door got smashed: 4 weeks in the shop. (insurance doesn’t want to pay, even though they said they were going to pay). Both of them had to find
other means of getting around–ride the bus. I decided I’d start riding the bus to work, to see if it’s easy, convenient and cost effective.
Here’s my experience:
Originally my bus was suppose to leave outside my house around 6:41 am. I got there around 6:42 am, and totally missed it. I saw it pulling away nearly 20 feet from me. Then I tried to ride my bike to catch up to it. Unsuccessful.
A month ago, I wrote about how drivers have saved 10 billion miles from high gas prices and are finding new alternative modes of transportation. My commitment was to ride my bike to work at least twice a week before I took off for my vacation to Argentina.
3 weeks ( 3 times each week ) = 9 times to work.
Cost of each round trip: $3.46
How much I saved from filling up each week: 9($3.46)=$31.41
How much I saved from filling up during the 3 weeks of riding my bike: $31.41(3 weeks)=$93.42
How many calories did I burn each round trip? 639.
I know, gas prices are dropping and $3.85 for a gallon of gas seems cheap for you now. Yet, there is a little part of you that would love to ride your beach cruiser to work and pretend that you’re going to the beach. Have excuses? I’ll shoot them down for you!
Excuse:
I don’t want to ride my bike to work because I’ll be breathing the fumes from the streets, therefore driving is safer. Answer:
Not necessarily true–READ THIS
Excuse:
Does biking to work really make a difference for my wallet and the environment? Answer:
It does! Check out drivepricing.com and read this
Excuse:
My company doesn’t support me riding my bike. Answer:
Maybe not your company, but some employers are stepping up to the plate. Google gave 2,000 bikes to their employees. New Belgium Brewing Co, workers received a bike after a year of working–not to mention all the Fat Tire amber ale their little hearts desired! Seattle’s Vulcan gives cyclists money for a cab if they leave after sunset.
So there, those are the basic excuses. Give it up. Bike to work. Let me know how you do! Tell me your biking schedule and the most interesting comment will get something rad that’s bike related in the mail.
According to the Consumerist, Gas prices are now everyday news for many of us here in the States. Even though gas prices have dropped below $4 in some places, it’s still too high for credit card purchases. $100 is the most you can buy at the pump without going inside and having them swipe your card.
Why the limit? To protect gas stations, which can be charged if there’s a problem with the transactions, according to the Washington Post. Purchases at the pump are vulnerable because no signature is required to verify the users identity. AND, since the credit card is swiped before the gas is pumped, there’s no way to know the size of the purchase when it’s authorized.
“Gas station owners and managers say they are already hard-pressed to hand more money back to credit card issuers. The high price of gasoline has left many stations in a financial fix. They’ve squeezed their average markup to remain competitive and the interchange fees they pay to credit card issuers, which rise with the sale price, are up.”
The average station makes a profit of $60 at the pump per day, says Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “It’s not uncommon to lose money selling gas. So the idea of losing $20 or $50 [in charge backs] is too much.”
At first I was shocked to read that gas stations are closing down. A Mobile next to my work, recently closed this weekend. The fences are up and pumps not pumping.
Running out of gas? or broke because of chargebacks?
