LOL anybody who disagrees is a wild-eyed left-winger, eh?

Curtis CCR wrote:
I admit that it was gratuitous accusation.

In other words, you acted like an asshole.


... But are you saying it
isn't true?

In my case, it definitely is not.


Curtis CCR wrote:
Could your point be more muddy?

It only looks muddy because your head is in the sand.


And you could only afford to continue boating with climbing gas prices
if your income kept up to.

What a brilliant observation. Obviously, if one's income does not keep
pace with inflation, then one must give up something. I can see that you
are one of the keenest economic thinkers of our time.


.. gas prices have not been artifically low in the US.
Refiners have historically made money - so the prices we have been
charged have covered more than the cost of production.

Depends on what time frame and scale you look at. In school I did a very
involved project on petro fuel economics and can tell you (or anybody
who is seriously interested) why that is not strictly true.


It seems to me to be Europeans that often think gas is too cheap here.
It's not artificially cheap here - it's artificially expensive
there.

With respect to a higher rate of tax on fuel, there is some truth to
that. OTOH in Europe they recover a lot of expenses associated with
autos through direct tax of fuel, instead of indirectly as we do here.



World oil demand is climbing - it's not just the US.

True but the US is by far the world's most gluttonous consumer.

... China is getting
very oil thirsty.

Yeah, China's per-capita energy & gasoline use is what, a fiftieth of
ours or less?


But our economy in the dumper? Not even.

Yeah, that must explain why the Republican spinmeisters are lying their
asses off and pointing to falsified unemployment numbers. Where are new
housing starts? Where are durable good orders?

Here's the most basic proof the economy is stagnating... interest rates
are staying very low and barely twitching upward. This means that demand
for capital is low... in other words, in the dumper.

And yet, this is after a bazillion dollar war build-up. Even with a huge
jump in gov't spending, the economy as a whole is not ramping up.

When it does, you *will* see interest rates go up. It's just that
simple. Meanwhile, keep your head stuck in the sand.

DSK