Gas Gets Cheaperer
Oil is still in free-fall, closing at just over $42 today. It was $145+ just a few months ago. Our demand for casual travel, and thus fuel, is way down, and likely to stay that way as we all continue to panic about the state of the global economy. The weird part is that since many nations the world over got greedy and participated in the mortgage origami that turned crap loans into AAA securities, the U.S. isn’t alone in this slide, and so far we’ve avoided hyperinflation. Had we been alone in the madness, the dollar would be sinking like a stone. There’s a weird kind of relief in the knowledge that Europe is in a similar mess. On the other side of the economic coin, China has poured so much into our sieve-like coffers they are tied to us through the sludge of this downturn (I hope. China will take over the world one of these days, and I wouldn’t mind having to learn Mandarin, but for the near future, I kind of need my local circumstances to favor my career choices).
We’re still in the early stages of a meltdown, however, and nobody knows where the bottom is or how long the trough will be. For now, I’m monitoring the gas plunge and waiting. Because, really, what else am I going to do?
