The economy is in trouble (live, car, gas)

[businezguy]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

what i think will happen if all our cars get 60mpg or china stumbles is opec will cut production to match to keep prices up . i always say supply and demand are not one word nor are they the same meaning. does it mean im right? beats me ........ does it matter if im right or wrong? not to much as i profit either way by the diversification in my investments

It's more economical to sell 1,000 hamburgers and make a profit of .10 cents on each than to sell 1 hamburger at $10 and make a profit of $9.90.

My point is this:

It is not in the interest of opec (if they are smart) to keep prices this high, and cause an economic crises. To do so will have the United States, China, and Europe perform perhaps the biggest and fastest infrustructural change in the history of the world.

OPEC can get away with this type of behavior over the next three to five years, but to do so will actually sew distrust of, and bring awareness of our dependance on oil, and vast resources will be deployed to make this happen.

The energy market is a 20 trillian dollar industry, and even if this nation were to go into a depression, it would have vast recources to dedicate towards a huge infrustructural change. In fact, assuming high unemployment rates, more resources would be available for such a project.

I could see a vast, high tech train system being implemented nation-wide, run by electricity, which comes from nuclear energy.

[mathjak107]

actually its more economical to sell less and make more. it has been our business plan to raise prices slightly when we slow down not lower them. . we sell less, have less people handling stuff, less bills to pay ,less collections etc. but maximize profits better. sales are lower but profits have been ok.. its a balance, you dont want to shoo away customers by being to high but you dont want a huge drop in profits coupled with less sales. you want to keep the prices high enough that they still remain captive to you.

[businezguy]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

actually its more economical to sell less and make more. it has been our business plan to raise prices slightly when we slow down not lower them. . we sell less, have less people handling stuff, less bills to pay ,less collections etc. but maximize profits better. sales are lower but profits have been ok.. its a balance, you dont want to shoo away customers by being to high but you dont want a huge drop in profits coupled with less sales. you want to keep the prices high enough that they still remain captive to you.

Generally speaking, having a higher profit margin is always better, I agree. But that is only part of my point. You see, the truth is, there ARE alternatives to OPEC oil, no matter what you've been told differently.

There's other sources of energy available, and in fact in abundance. For one thing, there's a tremendous amount of oil in the world, and due to very poor policies, these haven't been explored. There's also an incredible amount of technology that will bring down our dependance on oil.

What will essentially happen, most likely, is sources of oil will be discovered at the same time that demand for oil is reduced, and prices will eventually fall.

It's not as if there isn't a historical basis for claims that are made today, and ultimately proof that those claims are wrong.

Believe me, when it comes to oil, we might get dragged in the mud for the next 1 to 5 years, but OPEC knows they may very well bite the hand that feeds it, and they may not be that stupid. If they are, it might even be a good thing for this nation in the long run.

We'll see.

[mathjak107]

all i know is we all had the same thoughts and beliefs almost 40 years ago while i was waiting on those gas lines. thinking any year now we can tell them to shove there oil. well here we are 40 years later and we are still at their mercy. as you can tell i never plan on what may be, i plan for what is , whats here and now , and like steering a huge ship nudge it every so ofton to keep it on course with any changes. thats why commodities are a part of and probley will always be a part of my investments.
its an asset class like any other that needs coverage and we need the protection it offers. i have never invested by what i thought was going up or down at that time, i cover all the bases and take the good with the bad. then i profit no matter what the long term trend

[businezguy]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

all i know is we all had the same thoughts and beliefs almost 40 years ago while i was waiting on those gas lines. thinking any year now we can tell them to shove there oil. well here we are 40 years later and we are still at their mercy. as you can tell i never plan on what may be, i plan for what is , whats here and now , and like steering a huge ship nudge it every so ofton to keep it on course with any changes. thats why commodities are a part of and probley will always be a part of my investments.
its an asset class like any other that needs coverage and we need the protection it offers. i have never invested by what i thought was going up or down at that time, i cover all the bases and take the good with the bad. then i profit no matter what the long term trend

Yes, and the reason we are still at their mercy is because the supply of oil improved, and the situation was temporary. Of course, nowadays, we have technology we didn't even dream about 40 years ago, and can make changes much faster. We already are less dependent on oil in many respects then we were 40 years ago. Hopefully we'll be smart. It's almost like I should WISH oil prices stay high so this nation takes the necessary steps to find alternative means of fueling cars, and developing alternative means of transportation.

[mathjak107]

so far most of our technology went no where. a 25 year old civic got better gas milage than the one today. big reason weight. for all the great strides we made the cars got heavier and heavier. todays civic weighs over 1,000 lbs more than the origional. yeah we have hybrids and while those are good on gas they suck from a dollar stand point. just try trading in a hybrid a few years old, technology moves fast in hybrids and there resale is horrible.

forget about the thousands for out of warrany batteries.

[businezguy]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

so far most of our technology went no where. a 25 year old civic got better gas milage than the one today. big reason weight. for all the great strides we made the cars got heavier and heavier. todays civic weighs over 1,000 lbs more than the origional. yeah we have hybrids and while those are good on gas they suck from a dollar stand point. just try trading in a hybrid a few years old, technology moves fast in hybrids and there resale is horrible.

forget about the thousands for out of warrany batteries.

Actually, lest we forget, the reason is not mostly due to weight, and I'm very surprised more reporters don't remember this. We made changes to our gas around 1995 that made gas more environmentally friendly, but gave cars less gas milage. In essense, MOST of the difference is NOT due to WEIGHT, but due to that change in gas. Our technology HAS gotten better. However, just like our stupid oil policies which have now caught up with us, car companies (especially American), decided to pursue easier profits instead of working on improving efficiency. Now that that has changed, I'm sure you'll agree we have far more methods and technologies to improve MPG then ever before.

[mathjak107]

Its Weight. 1,000 Lbs More Of Civic Confirms That

[businezguy]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

Its Weight. 1,000 Lbs More Of Civic Confirms That

Gas efficiency for MPG went down 20 percent due to changes in the mixture which supposedly made it more environmentally friendly.

[mathjak107]

i guess your referring to mtbe and oxygonation. while yes its was true in carburated engines the mtbe change and the oxygonated fuel caused a pretty big drop in milage that came to end once fuel injection took over. we are now down to about about a 5 % difference from the different mixtures that are used around the country. the fuel injection systems of today are pretty good at handling the new additives like ethynol and the use of no mtbe . i remember when they made the mtbe change my vehicle at that time dropped like 30% in milage

of course the question still is whether or not if we still used mtbe how much higher if at all would milage be? we really have no way of answering that at this point since that gas is long gone, by the way id love to even include leaded fuel in the comparison