"I'm GGG and I approve this message."

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Reducing taxes will increase demand, which will increase the price and our reliance on foreign oil. Why postpone the inevitable? (Other than because that's what the federal government seems most capable of doing these days?)

The price spike will trail the increase in demand by a month to a month and a half. The uptick will be somewhat gradual and abate near the end of the summer. At the end of the arc there'll be excess reserves in place conceivably, hopefully, which will cause a stagnation in oil prices in the fall where there'd otherwise be the usual sudden increase.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I don't think that's nearly the biggest question there. It's more a question of whether the government can make the market work better over the opposition of those whose business models are based on the current craziness. As always, RT has my proxy.

How's that? Clinton and Obama propose to make health plans available to everyone by providing tax credits and price caps that probably means that everyone will pay higher taxes to subsidize those without but who want. McCain proposes to make health plans available to everyone by providing much smaller tax credits that mean not everyone can afford a plan, so taxpayer subsidies are less. The government involvement in all of them is as most pushing enrollment paper around for private providers.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Reducing taxes will increase demand,

do you know people who are driving less right now? i don't. i did get a more fuel efficient car than i had previosly, but i'm not going back because they dropped gas taxes for a month.

[Gattigap]

Apropos of little:

* Obama will appear with Jon Stewart on TDS tonight. The liberal portions of the interwebs may simply explode in orgasmic delight.

* Clinton is appearing on Keith Olbermann's show. I liked Marc Ambinder's assessment of that choice.

• There may well be a televised presidential smackdown tonight: Hillary Clinton will appear on MSNBC's Countdown with the franchise, Keith Olbermann. For many weeks, Mr. Olbermann has been caustically unsympathetic to Clinton, to her husband, to her campaign, to her campaign's arguments, surrogates, delegate math, television ads, to her campaign staff, her fundraising, her debates, her reason for existing, living and breathing.
  
  Then again, what does Clinton have to lose?

Gattigap

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
how much is tax? it looks like in Ontario, around Toronto, a gallon of regular costs about $4.36 right now. $1.10 or so is tax. are we that taxed?

I think it's 18c/gal. Maybe 27c/gal. At the federal level. States vary.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
The price spike will trail the increase in demand by a month to a month and a half. The uptick will be somewhat gradual and abate near the end of the summer. At the end of the arc there'll be excess reserves in place conceivably, hopefully, which will cause a stagnation in oil prices in the fall where there'd otherwise be the usual sudden increase.

Why would there be a 6 week delay?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
It may, if supply and demand have nothing to do with the price of gas.

Huh. So supply and demand has something to do with oil prices? I thought there was more than adequate supply... That the oil companies and traders were manipulating the price unfairly.

I guess I should stop reading left wing blogs.

Somebody should tell Barack. He may get a B- on his position paper.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
do you know people who are driving less right now? i don't. i did get a more fuel efficient car than i had previosly, but i'm not going back because they dropped gas taxes for a month.

Sure, but maybe you drive to Boston instead of flying.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
The price spike will trail the increase in demand by a month to a month and a half. The uptick will be somewhat gradual and abate near the end of the summer. At the end of the arc there'll be excess reserves in place conceivably, hopefully, which will cause a stagnation in oil prices in the fall where there'd otherwise be the usual sudden increase.

Where are these "excess reserves" coming from?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Where are these "excess reserves" coming from?

Sebby's ass. There's a lot in reserve there.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
How's that? Clinton and Obama propose to make health plans available to everyone by providing tax credits and price caps that probably means that everyone will pay higher taxes to subsidize those without but who want. McCain proposes to make health plans available to everyone by providing much smaller tax credits that mean not everyone can afford a plan, so taxpayer subsidies are less. The government involvement in all of them is as most pushing enrollment paper around for private providers.

I'm not saying that there's no redistribution involved at all, but I don't think that's where the biggest action is.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
do you know people who are driving less right now? i don't. i did get a more fuel efficient car than i had previosly, but i'm not going back because they dropped gas taxes for a month.

Apropos of what Hank says, this story seemed interesting to me. It certainly fits with what I've noticed where I live, which is that housing prices are taking much less of a beating the closer you are to downtown.

• Economists say home prices are nowhere near hitting bottom. But even in regions that have taken a beating, some neighborhoods remain practically unscathed. And a pattern is emerging as to which neighborhoods those are.
  
  The ones with short commutes are faring better than places with long drives into the city. Some analysts see a pause in what has long been inexorable — urban sprawl.
  
  The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area has been hit hard. Prices tumbled an average of 11 percent in the past year. That's the big picture. But a look at Ashburn, Va., about 40 miles from the center of town, finds a steeper fall.
  
  In parts of the county, housing prices have dropped 18 percent over that same period. New construction has ground to a halt.
  
  Realtor Danilo Bogdanovic surveyed two rows of neat, new, brick townhouses on Falkner's Lane. "These were selling for about $550,000 at the peak, which was about August '05, and they're selling right now for about $350,000," Bogdanovic said. "Fifty percent of this community has been ether foreclosed on or is facing foreclosure."
  
  For residents who work in the city, their commute is around an hour on trouble-free days. But that can extend upward toward two hours.
  
  At a recent auction of foreclosed homes north of Washington, in the Maryland suburbs, there weren't many takers. All of the addresses are far from downtown, and average commute times are among the highest in the nation.
  
  It's a different story for properties that are closer to the city's center — in areas of Montgomery County that are on the edge of Washington.
  
  "When I have a listing in this neighborhood, there are often 40 to 60 people coming through the open houses," said Pam Ryan-Brye, an agent with Long and Foster Real Estate.
  
  Inside the city, median home prices are actually up 3.5 percent from a year ago.
  
  Jonathan Hill, vice president of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which tracks home sales, sat in his office recently, clicking through page after page of price data sorted by ZIP code. There were a lot of negative numbers, but not in places that are close in or near public transit.
  
  The 20912 ZIP code, for example, showed almost a 10 percent increase in average sales price, Hill said.
  
  David Stiff, chief economist for the company that produces the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, saw the trend in other cities, as well — including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Miami and Boston.
  
  Stiff recently matched home resale values against commute times and found that in most of these major metropolitan areas, the trend is the same. The longer the commute, the steeper the drop in prices.
  
  Stiff says home buyers' attitudes have changed. The old rule was, "Drive 'til you qualify" — meaning they should go out from the city until they could get what they wanted at a price they could afford.
  
  Stiff says buyers are now asking different questions: "What is the cost of gasoline? What is the cost of my time?"
  
  Recent studies suggest that buyers underestimated the costs of their long commutes. Those expenses can add up to more than the buyers saved on the home. Developers also miscalculated, lured by cheap land and rising home prices. They overreached, "partly because the bubble collapsed, but partly because these developments were just bad ideas to begin with," Stiff said.
  
  Many of the projects were simply too far away from places that people need to go.
  
  Builders have already shifted gears. David Goldberg of Smart Growth America, a national coalition of planners and environmentalists, points to what his hometown, Atlanta, was like in the 1990s.
  
  "Atlanta was recognized as the fastest-spreading human settlement, probably in the history of the world," Goldberg said.
  
  But while the suburbs spread, the city was losing population. Now the tables have turned. In the past two years, new construction in what had been forests and farmland has slowed by more than 70 percent, but construction in town has held steady.
  
  Goldberg sees other cities rebounding, too, including Baltimore and Philadelphia.
  
  "Philadelphia was losing downtown housing and in-town housing until very recently," Goldberg said. "And now that's the hottest part of their market."
  
  Goldberg expects the trend to continue, even after the current housing crisis ends. Throughout the country, the percentage of families with children is shrinking. The share of empty-nesters, seniors and young people living alone keeps heading up. Those groups don't typically seek big green lawns.
  
  "We don't live in the Ozzie and Harriet era anymore," Goldberg said. "We live more in the Seinfeld, Sex in the City era, in which young people find cities to be compelling."
  
  So for now, at least, it seems that sprawl may have stalled — but not everywhere, and probably not forever. Experts are waiting to see what the next housing broom brings.

NPR

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Why would there be a 6 week delay?

The increases in use are sporadic. For every Memorial Day weekend, you get a lag of a few weeks behind it that creates a periodic mini glut, regulating the price downward. The market needs a sustained time frame of continuous increased consumption to drive prices into a sustained upward trajectory (like the fall heating season). Increased summer gas usage could be the very best thing for our fall heating prices because it could leave increased inventory in the market at an opportune time.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Chris Rock's new stand-up act discusses Obama a good bit. (Says BO's gotta watch his back even if he wins because Hillary reminds him of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.) I like one of his lines about Wright -- "A 75 Year old black man who don't like white people?! Hunh. Do you KNOW any other kind of 75 year old black men?"


S_A_M

More excerpts from Rock on Obama here.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Sebby's ass. There's a lot in reserve there.

Refinieries are still running pretty much full-out, right?