That ladies and gentleman is economics 101...can you imagine? 26 gallons x $5.5 = $143 fill up four times a month = $572 bucks...say good bye to average people's disposable income. The average married couple in this country earns a combined $35k...COMBINED!....you may want to look at making your stock portfolios defensive in the near term. If this does come to light before winter. The economy is going to grind to a halt. Xmas for retailers will be a disaster and job losses and desperation will mount. THIS is not good. Keep an eye on the Fed the market had a price increase factored in for Sept. That might be off the table and rate cuts might actually have to come back. This is a short term shock but it is happening in hours...not days and weeks.

That is a bit alarmist I think. First of all, who is talking about $5.50 gas? Plus, those families making $35K combined are likely not filling their tanks 4x per month at $2 a gallon. The economy will not gring to a halt based on gas prices alone. While some folks are getting wiped out due to the hurricane, this is going to be a boon for other industries. The economy will work itself out. There is a LOT of petroleum in the governments reserves. What will likely end up happening before we ever see $5.00 gas prices sustained is drilling in Alaska and the mountain areas. Many will object, but the reality of higher prices taking a long-term hold on this country will sway the vote the other way. Of course, time will tell if i am right or not, but these are my opinions.

If you looked at the picture at the top...a gas station in Atl has those prices posted. No one knows why they are goudging but they are. The terms that I proposed are worst case scenarios but the combinations of high home heating and gas prices will put a hit on the econmy that is 75% driven by consumers. If you make 2200 month and are used to spending $200 on gas are now are spending $350..that is $150 not going to other parts of economy.

Going to check out a vespa in a few days. I was going to anyway but nows a good excuse. Even my wife the woman who said "you cant have a motorcycle"
didn't say a word except" where you gonna buy it?

__________________
"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

they were all over the place in San Fran when I lived there about 5 years ago.

Bingo. Any business owner that doesn't raise prices when the good or service they produce is consumed faster than they can produce it will not be in business very long. I think it will be interesting to see how HI manages through this with their price caps. If gas can only be sold there for X.XX, and X.XX ++, I would imagine that very little gas will be supplied there.

For us, it means keeping our arses on the couch and eating a sandwich and chips (baked of course...trying to shed a few) instead of going out to dinner.

The only other thing to point out is that I don't think we really are having a crude shortage. Our refining capacity is reduced. If all the crude was released from the stockpile, pump prices would likely see little relief until the refineries can come back online.

Hawaii...the first bonehead state to pass a gas cap law that was intended to protect consumers. Since it went into effect today, our gas prices has INCREASED an average of .06 per gallon. WTF??
We have such great lawmakers here.

I don't know about doubling the national average as far as $3.50 goes, I just paid $3.59 to fill up my car, overall the thing cost me $81.00! That's just a lot of money!

The prices are pretty bad, but I think this is what we need to (hopefully) cool the housing market and gas prices long term...