by Valdemar » Fri 29 Feb 2008, 23:33:49
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LastViking', 'A')s Frank & Crow have commented upthread, this has been mostly an American-centric episode since Autumn. Most of the planet's users are paying less than before. Via oil & gasoline prices, Americans are not seeing a commodity seachange as is implied in many of their comments here. They are simply seeing how crappy their buck is. The shock they feel at the cash register is similar to that experienced in Argentina, Mexico and long ago in New Zealand ... in short, it sucks while your currency is being devalued by the global community.
What planet are you living on? I've seen petrol and diesel here explode in price within a few months, along with domestic energy bills sky-rocketing to add insult to injury. Last I checked, the pound wasn't a lame duck of a currency like the dollari and we're certainly feeling it financially.
To say the US spot price is down entirely to the dollar's free-fall is simplistic at best, disinformation at worst. There's no way the dollar is a quarter of it's value from 2002, simple as. We may not be paying
as much as Americans, but the rest of the world
is paying for this crude that isn't growing at all that tremendous a rate.