There are many factors that go into fuel prices and Economists generally agree that the White House really can’t do anything to change prices in the short-term. Despite this, during President Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office, conservative pundits and Republican politicians have continuously blamed him anytime the price of gasoline has jumped up. Interestingly, you won’t hear a peep from these people now that prices are on a downward spiral, if you do hear anything, it will likely be right-wing mouthpieces contradicting themselves and claiming Obama has nothing to do with the drop. Or, even better, they’ll find a way to spin it as a negative and then blame Obama.

I pay cash for gas and had to go back inside to get my change.  $2.99 on Saturday.


-- Modified on 10/21/2014 9:20:19 AM

Why do leading Dems not believe those economists?

Way better than $4+/ga six months back.  

The rest of the economy will not reflect the recent drop in fuel prices. Meaning the price of everything else you consume will remain the same, or most likely go up in price.

Presidents, Senators, and your Congressman can't do shit about oil prices. Yeah we can drill, baby drill but that won't do anything to the cost. It's controlled by the big oil companies and they'll decide what price we'll pay. If the public can pay 4.00 without bitching then that'll be the norm. And once consumer products go up when oil prices are high, do you think they'll go down when the prices are down? No fucking way. The oil companies have a saying to all politicians,"You're here for 4 years, we're here FOREVER".......
Its just rhetoric that each party throws at each other, which ever party the President is....mindless people who actually believe that shit.
Now let's nationalize the oil....Shit,like that will work

anymore that farmers control the price of produce, or ranchers control the price of meat.

No one entity really controls anything anymore, especially the price of commodities that are traded world wide. Much of the oil produced in this country becomes unprofitable when prices dip into the seventy dollar range. So if big oil actually controlled oil prices, do you really think that they would allow prices to dip to a level where the billions of dollars they just invested will become too expensive to even produce, much less provide a return on investment?

and yes, lower oil prices do have a serious, but delayed effect on inflation. Increased oil prices do not have an immediate effect of raising consumer goods and lower oil prices won't have an immediate effect on lowering the price of consumer goods.

maybe more was produced than anticipated for people traveling?  Summer over, doesn't it go down every year in the fall?

-- Modified on 10/21/2014 12:03:34 PM

90% of the media blame Obama's economic destruction on the cold winter.

-- Modified on 10/21/2014 3:15:28 PM

Really look at Exxon or any oil company and thier profits as an example.Nice try though as I can see you put alot of thought behind it.

.......business. If oil prices continue to spiral downwards it may cause an all out price war between various OPEC producers fighting to maintain market share. This of course would be GREAT news for oil consumers.

It's call manipulations. OPEC does it all the time.

Maxine Waters. Of course I would recommend that the Honorable Maxine work on delivery, and ensure the aides sitting next her not publicly laugh at her stupidity.  

Perhaps SA has increased production. Although, how would that impact U.S. shale producers?

Wouldn't it be better for the U.S. economy if fuel prices were high?

That can power an internal combustion engine.  

If maybe we had $6,00 a gallon gas. Maybe I had you peg all wrong, maybe you got something on the ball that I just didn't see. So enlighting me....Now you have my attention.

The more expensive the price of gas, the more one can charge for the price of oil.

The more people spend on gas the less money they have for a pair of Johnny's new pants. The factory that makes the pants will have a slow down and people get laid off. or how's this, less spending money means a family may skip the local Applebee's and eat home. The cooks and servers work less, or maybe get laid off....hence unemplyment rises and conservative go ape shit...that's the easiest way I can lay this out...make sense and see the trickle down affect it has??

I don't think there are any manufactures of pants in America.  

There's quite a few doing apparel domestically. not like before but they're there..I sub for a few of them. And I see first hand when the economy picks ups and when its down. And I used Applebees as an examples, pick your poison,  I can buy chicken instead of New York,  gee whiz.

I wouldn't compare designing fashion accessories for a handful of queers, to the mass production of pants for straight men.

Figures, I'm not surprised at all. Bet you shop with that Sears catalog all day.

No, I only wear pants woven from organic hemp fibers imported from Amsterdam.

Not sure why he should get credit for it other than being in office now.  What has he done?  The increased US oil production that has occurred is pushing back foreign oil and something has to give and so far the Saudis are saying it won't be them.  The one thing Obama has done is NOTHING on Keystone, which would enable even more oil to get to the market more cheaply.  And then there is ANWR.  It wasn't his fault when prices went up in 09, and it sure isn't his credit they are going down now.

AAPL makes more money on 1/2 the revenue of XOM by making and selling widgets vs XOM exploring, drilling, shipping, and refining a dangerous product.  XOM's profit margin is consistently ~10% where AAPL among others is 20-25%.  So who can control price?  XOM stock price over the last 8 years is basically flat while AAPL is up something like 15 times.