"Given the turmoil in the credit markets, investors are turning to commodities and oil as a trading vehicle," Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com and an economic adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign explains. "It doesn't take a whole lot of money" flowing out of the bond or stock market and into oil or natural gas to drive up prices."
Mr. Zandi, like so many of McCain's advisers, live in a different world than the rest of us. Crude oil's margin not including the price of buying the initial contract is $9,788 dollars per contract. As many of us old codgers are aware, that is approximately the same as the average amount paid to most Social Security recipients per year. I'm not doom and glooming those of you younger people to such discouraging figures, but take someone who's still in school and working part time. It's not a stretch of the imagination to imagine that nine thousand dollars is your yearly income either.
Now pay a full 1/3 or more to your local filling station and God knows how much to sustain natural gas or propane tanks for home heating as well. I dreamed of speculating on crude oil or even unleaded gasoline commodities. As it is with corn contracts at $1,350 margins and soybeans at $4,725 margins, we can hardly afford alternative fuel prices (let alone feeding the hungry) either.
I suspect that until they can tax wind power and solar power, neither of those are going to get a push in research and development either.
A Different World
Mr. Zandi, like so many of McCain's advisers, live in a different world than the rest of us. Crude oil's margin not including the price of buying the initial contract is $9,788 dollars per contract. As many of us old codgers are aware, that is approximately the same as the average amount paid to most Social Security recipients per year. I'm not doom and glooming those of you younger people to such discouraging figures, but take someone who's still in school and working part time. It's not a stretch of the imagination to imagine that nine thousand dollars is your yearly income either.
Now pay a full 1/3 or more to your local filling station and God knows how much to sustain natural gas or propane tanks for home heating as well. I dreamed of speculating on crude oil or even unleaded gasoline commodities. As it is with corn contracts at $1,350 margins and soybeans at $4,725 margins, we can hardly afford alternative fuel prices (let alone feeding the hungry) either.
I suspect that until they can tax wind power and solar power, neither of those are going to get a push in research and development either.