Bush spoke? What about? I can only find Deep Throat in the news.
Well I was out driving between 2 and now, and I saw gas at 1.899 at Sunoco at 795 and I280, and as I got into Rossford at Lime City and Buck it was 2.119 and I did a WTF. After I got done with my task in that area and went further south it was about the same, and when I got into Northwood it was 2.119 or thereabout again, so I went all the way back down and still got it at 1.899 at that Sunoco.
Mind you, here in Port Clinton it is 15 to 20 cents more than Toledo, and at least 5-10 cents more than Sandusky, Fremont, or even Oak Harbor. We really take in in the rear.
posted by anonymouscoward at 08:16 P.M. EST on Tue May 31, 2005 #
Best move I have made in a while was buying a 1988 Honda last year for $400. 160K miles, a hole in the floorboard, and rusty, but the engine purrs.
After a new set of tires and some work (plus some junk yard parts like wiper arms and rear view mirrors) I have a car that gets 30+ in the city and 40+ on the highway.
Gas prices don't faze me as long as this hoopty keeps ticking.
I save about $200 a month on gas, and this was gravy after the first few months.
posted by historymike at 09:00 P.M. EST on Tue May 31, 2005 #
Good Honda story. But it also is a good indicator of "what's going to happen" in this country in the immediate future.
What I see on the surface also tells me that the U.S. auto industry is pushing back so to speak. They know these current gas price hikes are unnecessary and already see them destroying their industry.
I believe that behind the scenes the auto industry is yanking Bush/Cheney's chain and making some trouble. That why the gas prices came down recently. As soon as the auto industry saw the damage to their own profits and futures, they went to work behind the scenes.
The oil companies are raking in WINDFALL PROFITS [which is what everyone called this gouging in the 1970's], and everybody knows what is going on, but only other industry big wigs can make noise and trouble for the oil creeps.
Well the auto execs need to be a lot more worried than they currently are. Mid to large sized vehicles are for sale all over town. Hyundai/Kia will soon overtake one of the major U.S. auto makers. This oil price gouging is an immediate crisis, and one that was basically created by this administration.
posted by edie at 08:33 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
P.S. Bush is now going to hold monthly news conferences. Yesterday's was the first of this "series" evidently. Now that the 2nd term election is behind him, he is no longer hiding from the general public (lucky us) & laboring under some notion that while the economy sinks, anybody really cares what speech he reads in the Rose Garden. He's a lame duck if ever a President was one [& which one reporter pointed out rather timidly], but his staff and handlers have not informed him yet of that fact.
For anyone who missed the recital, he says the economy is doing great.
posted by edie at 08:45 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
They know these current gas price hikes are unnecessary and already see them destroying their industry.
So Edie, the price of fuel is destroying the auto industry? Let's take GM as an example and see what it's major problems are:
1. One third of its sales are to its employees at union negotiated discounts that effectively erase profit.
2. Union rules make it economically inpractical to close plants or consolidate operations thus tying the hands of management to reduce fixed costs in the face of shrinking market share.
3. Union benefits negotiated over the years that are now supporting 2.5 retirees for every 1 productive employee.
The labor movement that is sucking the life out of GM is just another in a line of miserably failed or failing 20th century experiments in socialism driven by liberals.
And you blame oil prices?
posted by babbleman at 09:21 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
You make it waaay too simplistic with an ad hominem attack on unions. Unions are not our problem in this country & I suspect you know it.
For one thing, the engineers aren't unionized and they are designing pieces of junk, relatively speaking. And getting paid very well to do so. Just ask anyone who has bought GM products in recent years - the ones where the intake manifolds are melting because the engineers thought it would be cost effective (evidently) to make them out of plastic and place them near a heat source under the hood.
GM should have done recalls on these cars, involving several different models... instead they are letting consumers (who will be unlikely to choose GM next time) take the financial hit to repair the messes.
Sorry, but these cars are not designed/engineered by unionized assembly line workers.
And where oil comes in is that we are being gouged pure and simple, and you just slough that off? Not very informed or intellectually honest frankly. Americans will swallow a lot to buy American, but not when they can't afford to drive the vehicles they buy. There are a lot of crooks at the tops of many industries, but you choose the union workers to blame?
posted by edie at 09:52 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
There are a lot of crooks at the tops of many industries, but you choose the union workers to blame?
Yes.
posted by babbleman at 10:15 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
1) The unions are corrupt. I have first-hand knowledge and evidence of this.
2) The Big Three automakers can't design a fairly cheap, reliable car that gets really good gas mileage.
3) Between the (mis)management of the Big Three and the unions, the US auto industry is going down the tubes.
You know why they're building auto plants in CANADA? It's because they can get workers who actually know their stuff and do a good job, pay them pretty well, and NOT HAVE TO PAY INSANE HEALTH PLAN COSTS BECAUSE CANADA HAS SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE.
But you know, the Republicans hate the idea of a national health care plan. Except we have one called Medicare, and they paid back their contributors from Big Drug, the pharmaceutical industry, by enacting a prescription drug benefit that's going to run us half a trillion dollars or more in debt.
Meanwhile, the Republicans and FDA say we're not allowed to reimport drugs from Canada because they are unsafe.
This is the same FDA that couldn't protect us from bad drugs made by GSK in Puerto Rico:
In March, the FDA and the US Department of Justice seized batches of GSK’s diabetes treatment Avandamet (rosiglitazone plus metformin), and its antidepressant, Paxil CR (paroxetine), saying they failed to meet quality standards. The interruption in supply has already cost GSK around €300m in lost sales.
Of course, GSK didn't like that interruption to the Paxil revenue stream:
Blue Cross/Blue Shield and other insurers have sued GlaxoSmithKline in a dispute over the generics market of Paxil. The insurers are alleging that Glaxo has been gaming the patent system to keep cheaper generic alternatives to the antidepressant off the market. Glaxo lost its patent on Paxil in 2003. They accuse Glaxo of violating federal and state antitrust laws and fraud laws and engaging in deceptive trade practices.
The lawsuit alleges that the drug company claimed to hold patents on scientific procedures that already were in the public domain and listed invalid patents with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that kept other pharmaceutical manufacturers from making generic equivalents.
Oh, and another pile of bad drugs the FDA failed to protect us from AND TRIED TO HIDE THE NEWS FROM US:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after an extraordinary delay, has announced that Able Laboratories of Cranbury, NJ, is conducting a nationwide recall of all of its manufactured drugs -- mostly generic prescription drugs, including drugs containing acetaminophen.
Able says the company has serious concerns that the recalled drugs were not produced according to quality assurance standards. The company has ceased all production and said its chairman and CEO will resign and withdrew financial guidance. Able's stock plunged in heavy trading.
The FDA had been aware of the Able Laboratories recall since Monday May 23 but failed to take any action until late Friday afternoon as the Memorial Day weekend got underway. The FDA first announced the recall at 6 pm EDT Friday May 27 after the long Memorial Day weekend had started.
posted by anonymouscoward at 10:16 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
The unions are corrupt.
Just for the record, I did not allege that the unions are corrupt. However, to the extent that they are, it just adds to the fact that their premise of socialism is not sustainable in a free market.
The Big Three automakers can't design a fairly cheap, reliable car that gets really good gas mileage.
It is tough to say what management can or can't do as long as unions have them bound and gagged in the back room.
posted by babbleman at 10:52 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
Babblemnan:
It is true that many unions have become corrupt entities whose first motivation is self-preservation of the union.
However, that is only part of the picture.
The megalithic multinational corporations share as much, if not more, of the blame for the convoluted messes in which we find ourselves.
Their focus is not on what is good for society, but rather what is good for the corporation.
I do not buy into the notion that corporate profit-seeking will necessarily lead to desired social outcomes, since the focus is now month-to-month and, at best, quarter-to-quarter for most companies.
If a company racks up a couple of quarters that do not please Wall Street, they will enter a spiral of decline that rarely ends happily for the firm. Stock values drop, borrowing costs rise, and the company responds by cutting in other areas.
Then sales lag, stock prices drop further, and the cycle continues.
Meanwhile, social goals that need longer-term focus (such as alternative energy technologies or curing AIDS) become expensive pipe dreams in which firms cannot or will not invest, because there is no immediate payback.
And problems just worsen....
posted by historymike at 10:56 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
No, historymike, I know firsthand that some unions (at least their locals and some regionals) have "protecting the butts of the union officials" placed well in front of "self-preservation of the union" (union solidarity). If you're not in the "in" group, you don't get your grievances taken, you don't get representation, and you're shunned. Should you try to challenge this, you're kicked back down and told to file a grievance, because they can't investigate anything without one.
And in corporations, it's no longer what's good for the corporation as a whole, it's what's good for the senior management. I want to know how golden parachutes for departed execs are good for a corporation. Good for the corporation would be expediting his leaving by the company providing a cardboard box (company asset) for him/her to carry out their belongings in.
It's like this Kellen Winslow Jr. crap with the Browns. Good for the team is working to recuperate from injury and not doing anything risky or stupid that might get you hurt. Bad for the team is popping wheelies on your shiny new high-powered motorcycle, going head-over-handlebars, and tearing your ACL. Bad for the team is paying Winslow to do that. Good for the team is the clause in Winslow's contract that says they get to take back his signing bonus and apply it to pay someone to cover for his butt for another year.
posted by anonymouscoward at 11:45 A.M. EST on Wed Jun 01, 2005 #
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