It has had no effect on reducing the price of food (transport) or most airline fares.
On Dec 26, 3:28 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > newsbusters.com > By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive) > December 26, 2008 - 13:15 ET > > Looking for your own financial bailout? > > Well, the unprecedented decline in gasoline prices the past five > months is actually giving regular Americans a much-needed boost to > their balance sheets possibly greater than what the government is > doling out to the financial services and automobile industries. > > New data just released by the Oil Price Information Service reveals > that we're currently spending $1 billion a day less on gasoline than > we were back in July. > > Don't expect media members to be lining up to thank the oil companies > for what was reported by the Associated Press just minutes ago: > > Tumbling crude prices have led to enormous declines in the price of > retail gasoline. > > At the pump, retail gas prices fell six-tenths of a penny overnight to > a new national average of $1.642 a gallon Friday, well below the year- > ago average of $2.981 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price > Information Service. > > "We're paying about a billion dollars per day less than we were in > July" for gasoline, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at > Oil Price Information Service. "We could probably bail out some banks > and maybe even some of the auto companies with the savings." > > CNBC's Mary Thompson broke down the numbers she received from Kloza > Friday: when gasoline peeked on July 11, we were spending $1.613 > billion a day to fill our tanks. The combination of lower prices and > lower consumption brings that down to $611.5 million today. > > And, the news might get better because wholesale gasoline is currently > trading around $0.80/gallon, which means that some parts of the > country could see prices at the pump approaching $1 in the next few > weeks. > > Of course, we shouldn't ignore huge declines in what we'll all pay to > heat our homes this winter. Heating oil a year ago was $2.64/gallon. > Now it's $1.25, or down over 50 percent. > > Maybe more important, this is down from a July peak of $4.15. And, > natural gas has plummeted from $13.60 in July to $5.80 today, which > means we're all getting a HUGE cut in heating costs not only from last > year, but also based on what was being forecast just five months ago. > > This seems worthy of some holiday cheer, although it's likely most > media outlets won't care until after Inauguration Day when they'll be > able to give the new president all the credit. > > —Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
