whats diesel got to hit to stall or stop trucking.

As far as crude and diesel prices "settling" anywhere, have none of you ever heard of a price bubble? Was no one paying attention to tech stocks? housing?

Secondly, Bear Stearns was about one third owned by its employees, so they are taking a bath on this, and not all of them are millionaire bankers.

 

couple this with the fed just dropping a quarter point, and the Carlyle group running into solvency issues.

yes, its going to be very active this week.

 

I wonder if this is the catalyst that causes the balloon to go up

 

Doubt it. This is just the market cleaning house a bit.

The crude bubble will burst once everyone, or the vast majority think, that these escalated prices are the new "normal".

Bubbles always burst, just a matter of being able to survive until it does. Could be two weeks, could be six months. But all the speculative money is still pouring in.

Here is a little hint, once you hear your doctor, dentist or your mailman talking about trying to make money in crude oil, the bubble is certainly near bursting point.

 

I heard an oil analyst last week predict that crude prices will settle back to $75 per barrel within 18 months -- I agree with that prediction. I expect gasoline to settle in at $3.00 and diesel at $3.50 in the same period, assuming that the current recession doesn't become a full-blown depression. And I wouldn't lay odds one way or the other on that one. Our currency is nothing but paper with nothing but "The Full Faith and Credit of the United States" to back it up -- faith and credit which is being strained past the breaking point. During the last depression, our currency was still backed by gold and silver. Now it's backed by the value of the paper itself. But you have to admit, it's some awfully nice paper.

 

The smart money should sell oil and gold any day now.