"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ups.com...
On May 7, 3:18?pm, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message

ps.com...

You certainly succeeded in demonstrating the absurdity that either
political party controls gas prices.

Go away and think for 20 minutes about how this situation is connected to
cheaper goods from overseas.

Demand for oil overseas raises competition for a world wide commodity.
Pretty obvious. That affects the price of a bbl of oil more than
refined products, however. Because the environmental laws are lax or
worse in many of those developing economies it's a lot cheaper to
refine the oil there than it would be to refine it here and then ship
it overseas again. We may be competing with the Chinese for crude, but
not for refined products from US refineries.


I was thinking more along these lines: Although some people inexplicably
deny this, higher oil prices affect every link in the manufacturing chain,
simply because of freight costs. Now, some businesses may switch to overseas
manufacturing because they just feel like cranking up their profit margin
ASAP. But others may do so when costs here reach the point where they have a
choice of either move, shut their doors for good, or try raising prices and
have their customers shut down their companies by refusing to pay those
higher costs.

To simplify: Do higher oil prices push manufacturing jobs overseas?