2015 Catch-All thread

[southsider2k5]

2.28 Mike...oh man, I'm even sadder now. Can one of you guys bring me out a big gas truck at those prices and park it in an abandoned lot so I can use it as my own personal pump. I swear, in Cali, every 3 months a refinery blows up or is shut down and prices immediately skyrocket 50 cents and then take ages to come back down. I am convinced it is people just milking the whole process. Whole reason oil was ever as high as it was had more to do with the hedge fun money / speculators than anything else, imo.

 

HA! For you, anytime.

 

The big problem is that no is really building new refinery's so all of this equipment is decades old.

[StrangeSox]

2.28 Mike...oh man, I'm even sadder now. Can one of you guys bring me out a big gas truck at those prices and park it in an abandoned lot so I can use it as my own personal pump. I swear, in Cali, every 3 months a refinery blows up or is shut down and prices immediately skyrocket 50 cents and then take ages to come back down. I am convinced it is people just milking the whole process. Whole reason oil was ever as high as it was had more to do with the hedge fun money / speculators than anything else, imo.

uh oh now you've done it, ss2k5 is gonna take exception to that one

[Iwritecode]

I wonder how much the kids heading back to school had to do with the prices rising? Maybe nothing at all but I know when I was still commuting into Chicago everyday, I hated this time of the year because my commute time always went up with more traffic/buses on the road slowing everything down.

 

Don't know about anywhere else but my kids started back yesterday.

[Jose Abreu]

I wonder how much the kids heading back to school had to do with the prices rising? Maybe nothing at all but I know when I was still commuting into Chicago everyday, I hated this time of the year because my commute time always went up with more traffic/buses on the road slowing everything down.

 

Don't know about anywhere else but my kids started back yesterday.

Yesterday? Wow, my high school starts on the 26th.

[knightni]

2.28 Mike...oh man, I'm even sadder now. Can one of you guys bring me out a big gas truck at those prices and park it in an abandoned lot so I can use it as my own personal pump. I swear, in Cali, every 3 months a refinery blows up or is shut down and prices immediately skyrocket 50 cents and then take ages to come back down. I am convinced it is people just milking the whole process. Whole reason oil was ever as high as it was had more to do with the hedge fun money / speculators than anything else, imo.

I paid $1.68 in April.

[southsider2k5]

I wonder how much the kids heading back to school had to do with the prices rising? Maybe nothing at all but I know when I was still commuting into Chicago everyday, I hated this time of the year because my commute time always went up with more traffic/buses on the road slowing everything down.

 

Don't know about anywhere else but my kids started back yesterday.

 

Nothing.

 

A spike like this is all about suppressing demand until supply can rebound.

[southsider2k5]

I paid $1.68 in April.

 

My low was $1.61.

[cabiness42]

I wonder how much the kids heading back to school had to do with the prices rising? Maybe nothing at all but I know when I was still commuting into Chicago everyday, I hated this time of the year because my commute time always went up with more traffic/buses on the road slowing everything down.

 

Don't know about anywhere else but my kids started back yesterday.

 

My kids started school July 30.

[Rowand44]

My kids started school July 30.

Yeesh. Really?

[Iwritecode]

Nothing.

 

A spike like this is all about suppressing demand until supply can rebound.

 

That was my thinking though. Demand is going to start increasing if it hasn't already.

[southsider2k5]

That was my thinking though. Demand is going to start increasing if it hasn't already.

 

I posted this in another place, but will share it here.

 

I have seen a lot of discussion about the how's and why's of the gas price spike. For those who are interested, the explanation isn't nearly as exciting as some have suggested.

 

In this case, the price spike is an attempt by the market place to limit demand until supply can rebound.

 

Economically speaking, any time you change the price of an item, there is a reaction of a percentage of people who either will or won't buy your product now. That is called a products "elasticity". For things where there is an easy substitute, they have a high elasticity. For gasoline, it has a very low elasticity, as there really isn't an easy substitute. In other words, it takes a very large price change in the price of gas, to get people to stop buying it.

 

For example (the following numbers are all made up, I don't know what they are really) say that NWI uses 1 million gallons of gasoline per day. With the problems at BP, say that 200,000 gallons per day are taken off line. In this case, it means that somehow you have to get rid of 200,000 gallons per day of people wanting to buy gas, otherwise you will have a shortage and supply will run out quickly. What a price spike does is force some people to stop buying gas, thus making sure that the now lower supply is adequate to meet demand. Because of the new higher prices, some will cancel trips, or maybe decide to bike somewhere instead of walking, etc. Because gasoline has a low elasticity, it take a very large price increase get people to change their driving behavior, which is why the price spike you are seeing has been quite large.

 

Now don't get me wrong, there are some who will take advantage of the situation to increase profits, but for the most part, the price spike is expected. Without it, we would run out of gasoline because people wouldn't change their behaviors enough.

 

I know it doesn't make things any better, but hopefully that helps to explain the economics behind what is going on.

[cabiness42]

Yeesh. Really?

 

Yeah, the year before my first kid started kindergarten, our district switched to a calendar that runs 9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on, which leaves 8 weeks for summer break.

 

This is the way I look at it: Everybody else is taking family vacations from July 30-August 12 while my kids are in school. We can take family vacations from October 4-17 while everybody else's kids are in school. Hotels are a little bit cheaper and popular tourist attractions will be less crowded.

 

We're actually coming up to Chicago the week of October 11. I expect the museums to be much less crowded than if we were there right now.

[StrangeSox]

You also posted a big, long explanation years ago in some filibuster thread about how the pricing of the futures market (or something along those lines) indicates that it isn't really just speculative bubbles or deliberately driving up prices.

[StrangeSox]

Yeah, the year before my first kid started kindergarten, our district switched to a calendar that runs 9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on, which leaves 8 weeks for summer break.

 

This is the way I look at it: Everybody else is taking family vacations from July 30-August 12 while my kids are in school. We can take family vacations from October 4-17 while everybody else's kids are in school. Hotels are a little bit cheaper and popular tourist attractions will be less crowded.

 

We're actually coming up to Chicago the week of October 11. I expect the museums to be much less crowded than if we were there right now.

 

This is the downside of my wife being a teacher. We can basically only travel during peak tourist seasons.

[southsider2k5]

You also posted a big, long explanation years ago in some filibuster thread about how the pricing of the futures market (or something along those lines) indicates that it isn't really just speculative bubbles or deliberately driving up prices.

 

That's really a stretch for two different things.

[Iwritecode]

Yeah, the year before my first kid started kindergarten, our district switched to a calendar that runs 9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on/2 off/9 on, which leaves 8 weeks for summer break.

 

This is the way I look at it: Everybody else is taking family vacations from July 30-August 12 while my kids are in school. We can take family vacations from October 4-17 while everybody else's kids are in school. Hotels are a little bit cheaper and popular tourist attractions will be less crowded.

 

We're actually coming up to Chicago the week of October 11. I expect the museums to be much less crowded than if we were there right now.

 

I've heard of that before. It's essentially year-round schooling. There was talk of our school district going to that schedule years ago but they never did.

[RockRaines]

Traded in my Ducati for a Harley, hope that slows me down a bit.

[MEANS]

Don't know how many of you follow or have heard of Baseball Card Vandals but look who showed up today....

 

http://www.baseballcardvandals.com

Edited August 20, 2015 by MEANS

[knightni]

Don't know how many of you follow or have heard of Baseball Card Vandals but look who showed up today....

 

Don Cooper

Can you copy and upload? I can't get it to show up in the link.

[MEANS]

give it a try now.

[knightni]

give it a try now.

Nope.

 

My work computer blocks the image.

[Steve9347]

Real estate moguls.

 

I close on the house I am selling on Wednesday. First time I've sold a house - I took the mount off the wall and it left some fairly annoying pieces and a well-maintained hole to the other side.

 

The final walkthrough is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Should I be worried about this? They can put a new mount on the wall over it fairly easily, but do we think this is something that can kill the deal?

[StrangeSox]

They might ask for some money back for repairs.

[Steve9347]

They might ask for some money back for repairs.

That'd be fine with me. Would the closing still happened as planned assuming they do ask for something?

[StrangeSox]

I wouldn't see why not as long as all parties agreed on the final price when it came time to sign. There was some last-minute negotiating at the closing for our house over some dumb bs that was sorted out without delaying anything.