and California suffered rolling blackouts -- and many retirees suffered Enron as a result.
the oil barons took a look and said... hmmm, how can we get ours? Do you remember back to the summer of 2000, when gas prices... for no apparent reason... started to cross the 2 dollar, then the 2-50 threshhold?? I told anyone who'd listen at the time, "it's only to see what the market will bear." Even my republican boss agreed. and lower oil prices were among the arguments used to get us into the Iraq war (though said sotto voce, because it was really too krass to mention too loudly.)
In the intervening 9 years, gas prices went back down -- then started climbing upward higher and higher... generating record profits for the Seven Sisters (do we still call the oil companies that.. or is that as outdated as the Big 8 Accounting firms?)
People were already struggling with astronomical increases in heating and electricity bills. (in my own area when price caps came off, our bills went up 15 -- then 60 percent.) People who have oil heat saw unbelievable bills -- 600 or 700 a month for small houses... people who have large, old, drafty houses -- were seeing those kinds of bills for natural gas.
Then, gas hit 4 dollars a gallon -- more in California. and the housing bubble sank like a stone. it hadn't been rising as high even before that because of (to my thinking) heating/electricity costs. People were defaulting on mortgages they'd been tempted to take out that they didn't understand and couldn't afford -- and lots of others couldn't handle the cost of commuting, let alone paying the utilities.... It crashed the system.
My feeling is the energy barons -- with their deregulation -- and their pumping up gas prices... piled the final straw on the camel's back. they backed off on gas prices... and the government stepped in to help. so now, gas prices are back up as they see what they can grab...
on my corner, gas prices are rising a nickel every two or three days. Don't tell me about jitters in the futures markets-- or refineries that have gone down. I can't promise I'll believe you. I only know I'm seeing generic brand cannned vegetables selling for a buck a can in the local grocery stores... three different chains within five minutes of my house.
But they tell us inflation is in check. Go figure.
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