Crude oil is $86 today.... beginning of the end?

Some people want their ears tickled. Others want the truth, all the truth, the good and the bad. I'm in this last camp. Even though I may yet again make my money in the oilfield I still care about the single mom working at Walmart and what is good for her children.

 

Maybe you forgot what starting pay at Walmart in North Dakota was last year. Even McDonalds was starting kids at $18 hr. I wonder what it will be in 2015. The oil field boom helped everybody in the community. Not just the oil field workers.

 

here is an economist that understands.

“Overall the economy is quite weak,” Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital Inc.

“The average consumer has way too much debt and household net worth has declined,” Schiff said. “Real wages are lower today than they were five years ago. I think people are overestimating the shape of the consumer and his ability to spend.”

As global oil prices fall, many of America’s well-paying jobs will evaporate, Schiff predicted, and the employment situation will get dire.
“Young people can’t get part-time jobs because their grandparents have those jobs,” Schiff said.

 

Ok you have a point. But personally cheap oil is better for me. The longer it stays that way the better. An extra $30 to $40 might not be much to fret about for the average family but to families living in their means every penny counts. The thing with what happens to the broader economy really isn't a make or break scenario for people able to adapt and not in debt for everything. You don't have to participate.

 

Untrue. You're talking about Williston. The rest of ND isn't paying that. You are talking about a tiny geographic area like that where it costs $1,000 a month to park a trailer.

The rest of the 99.99% of the country wages aren't so high.

In any case, high prices are good if you happen to be in the particular industry producing those goods. If you grow bananas, high banana prices are good. If you work in a tricycle factory, high prices for tricycles are good.

The single mom scenario isn't far fetched. For a lot of people, $3-$4 gas eats up a large portion of their income.

 

The bulk of that argument is that the economy and wages are in poor condition. If the US maintains it's market share for oil production, that is money earned here and not simply spent over there- which is good for us.

You can't get around the fact, however, that < $10/hr retail workers all over the country are getting a huge break from $2/gal gasoline.

Much of this could be moot, anyway. I still think it's about economic warfare with Russia and as soon as that's over with, prices go back up. Classic 'predatory pricing'. Those who are able lower the price long enough to destroy the competition and then jack the prices up even higher once they attain monopoly conditions (or at least, destroy whoever they're trying to destroy).

 

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/20...-saudi-budget-seen-as-sign-of-confidence.html



how low can we go....?

 

Who are the top three weakest companies in the shale play states?

 

Yea I know that a lot of families outside of West Texas will benefit from lower fuel prices. I felt like I said that before.