Economies?

[JaumeJ]

It used to be when the price of the barrel of oil dropped it was good for the consumer. This old rule is a thing of the past today.

You see the world economies at the business and government levels today are imaginary. They do not work due to artificial stimuli.

There is no longer an immense consumer base to support and give growth to industry and business in general. In other words they operate at a loss.

The new age solution by WB and the IMF is simple but devastating. The governments pump funds into these worthless entities. The money is from the tax payer, largely comprised of the immense masses of the working force who used to comprise the consumers who encouraged honest business practices, and what is more, profits.

The movers and shakers of today are so out of touch with honest business and industry endeavor they can only do what they have been doing the past few decades, robbing from Peter to pay Paul.

A recipe for total collapse, and it is closer than any may imagine.

 

[p_rehbein]

Well, yes and no. The plus for the average person is a drop in fuel prices when they fill their tanks. The eventual plus is the lower cost of transporting goods and merchandise from point A to point B, resulting in lower costs at stores. Lower fuel costs result in lower growth/production costs, which also is a plus on the open market.

Downsides are also real. Stock Market dips/corrections, loss of jobs in the Oil Patch due to lower costs for a barrel of oil, less drilling, etc. Lower fuel costs also equate to lower taxes collected by Local, State and Federal Governments which can lead to increase in taxes in other areas.

When Iran is allowed to dump their vast supply of stocked oil onto the open market, prices could really spiral downward. We might well again see Gas at or below 99 cents a gallon.

As with many things, there is some good and some bad with falling oil prices.

 

[JaumeJ]

The Dow dropped 450 a few days ago, and now another 400. It is their yardstick. Some odd and key events of the past decades.

Nixon took the dollar off of the gold standard.

Nixon visited China opening new economic relations.

Reagan coined the term "voodoo economics" while instituting them himself. If you do not believe it, check out how unemployment began to be calculated after his tenure.

Alan Greenspan was allowed to change interest rates whenever it moved him to do so. Incidentally, he became one of the wealthiest men in the US.

This economic markers are only as important as the importance given them, but man gives them great importance..

Not only was the dollar given freedom for its value to "float" along with world currencies, so was the US economy.

No need to go in to the World Bank or the IMF...........

The character and direction of the movers and shakers of this old world changed a while back, and when the term, greed is healthy, became an acceptable economic guide the handwriting was on the wall, and it dos not take a Daniel to read and understand it.

Fasten your seatbelts.......

 

[zeroturbulence]

The market is really overreacting to the dropping oil price. It's all fear-based. I'm not really sure what they are afraid of though. If the fracking industry goes belly-up its just a tiny part of the US economy. The big oil companies are still raking in huge profits and have very deep pockets. OPEC controls the oil price, but big oil controls the price of gasoline.

For example, we are still paying nearly $3 a gallon here in california even though oil is below $30 a barrel. We were paying $4-$5 a gallon when oil was over $100 a barrel. We should really be paying only 1/3 the price of when it was $100 a barrel, which would be $1.20-$1.50 a gallon(!!)

 

[dalconn]

There are definitely some ominous clouds on the horizon

That wicked one could walk on to the "one world" stage very soon