The Law Of Supply And Demand...ahhhh! gasoline prices hike in Georgia

[Kim 0]

So most people who live in the US and catch the news now and then have heard about hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico. Here in Atlanta we only get some heavy rain now and then. However, the Gulf Coast refineries had to close, so there is a predicted severe gas shortages for this city of fanatic drivers. The governor has just issued an emergency decree that closes gas stations after 5 pm. So as the wonderful law of supply and demand dictates, this caused a mad mad rush to gas stations, and consequently an outrageous hike in gasoline prices. In the morning it was around $2.6/gallon. Now it's $5/gallon. :-( I understand that businesses are looking out for themselves, and with a smaller supply they have to raise the price to make more money...but doesn't a 200% increase seem a little extreme??Oh well, I should still be thankful and pray for those who were affected by Katrina.

[thablkpanda 0]

As usual, you make a point, and it's taken well, but what can you expect? And next to occur is that the resellers realize that people will STILL buy gas at $5 a gallon, so why not leave it there once the refineries are re-opened? Same thing that happened when we 'invaded' Iraq. Per-se. Gas rose due to necessities, and the war itself, and the retailers keep the price where it is to make money, even after the crisis is deprevated (sp?)Panda

[Kim 0]

You made a scary but logical point, and if it comes true I am buying a bicycle. But I hope that the prices will not stay ridiculously high when the refineries are reopened...It is very possible that some gas station will lower its price just enough to outcompete the other gas stations, which will lower their prices, and so on.

[Saint_Michael 3]

well you failed to forget that other countries buy oil from the same places, and if you look at the news as well china has been buying up alot, something going down maybe, but yeah thanks to the war and now the hurricane we are going to be in the biggest gas crisis since the 1970's-1980's and rumors are going around that osama bin hiding is winning is his war against by destroying our economy, but he made a mistake, the world is basing their money on ares and if we crumble so will the world.

[thablkpanda 0]

Either way, my friends, this Hurricane is just the beginning of our problems. Due to the law of (old dude) for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. The action here is the gas hike, and our reaction has yet to come. Rise in gas crimes, people stealing gas, then it leads to stolen Hybrid cars possibly, then the fuel-cells for hybrid cars, (this is a single minded view, but you see what I'm trying to convey?)This can't end well, or my name's Bob. And its' not.- Christopher Merchant a.k.a Thablkpanda

[Armegeddon 0]

yeah i would have agree the problems have yet to begun, from what i hear a day or so ago the ruscue cres where getting fired upon by the people at the stadium which is uncalled for, and of course your hearing all news about people stealing stuff that they don't need like tvs, vcr's, and electronics, if it were me i would have gone for food and clothes like some people have. but again what makes it worse the police had no control over them until the military was called up.but what irks me the most was the lack of response time for this, and of course the racism, thats being toss around as well on news station.Then of course the way the dead are being treated as well, being tossed aside like wasted food.But then again very few nations outside North American have help and whats really surprising is that those who were hit by the tsunamis and are giving some money to the U.S gorvernment to help out, that surprised me right there. well hopefully the gas prices start dropping, because already alot of gas stations are bone dry and that makes the prices go up even more, but then again some people are being crooked about this as well. It should be interesting what happens in the next few months.

[Kim 0]

While we are on the topic of Katrina, does anyone know anything about the trustworthiness of the American Red Cross? This article http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ says the Red Cross has withheld funds from donations to various disater reliefs, including the tsunami and 9/11, but prisonplanet.com almost looks like a conspiracy theory website, so I don't know...Of course it's not like I want to donate thousands of dollars to hurricane relief (I can't), but it's still good to know my money is going to deserving hands.

[AMWGeek 0]

I usually don't that much attance about the Hurricanes, but this one got mine. Especially sonce I'm driving now. The gas prices aren't as bad as some places, but it's still bad. Like when me and my dad went to go refull our cars, the gas stations was a nightmare. And the prices, man! It was 2.99, so 27 dollars for my car and 72 dollars for my dad's trunk.If the price keeps going up, my family is going to go broke from this. Especially since my car crash, it also ruin any a trip I'm sure my dad wanted to do, since my grandpa isn't doing to well.They got both gas pipes working in North Carolina, but only at 38%. Which to me, is better than not working at all. I also heard they also got one of the pipe in the Gulf working, so in time they'll have the other one working.Lets just hope the prices don't get as high as they're in England, last I heard it was around 8.00$. If they do, I might have to ride my bike, or the bus to school. I might even have to walk, whcich isn't to bad since I live near it bu not near enough.

[Dragonfly 0]

The issue you've raised here is a natural phenomenon for *person* sapiens be it in the United States, Asia, or Europe - the tendencies of sellers like diesel, gas, etc are all the same; the same greed and avarice can be found in them. As soon as there was food supply cut off in the area where I live in(Asia), the price of rice was not just 200% but it rose 500% and there was nothing we could do about it. We can't help but have to buy them in whatever price they quoted. It doesn't quite look like America where people are looting and stealing things and there was chaos everywhere until the troops were dispatched by the President of the United States to restore the law and order for the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

[adriantc 0]

The really bad thing about this situation is that the USA as the most powerful country of the world has a ver very big influence nasty on global economy. I'll take two major natural disasters and compare their efects on global economy.So I am thinking about last december's tsunami waves (in my opinion a much larger disaster, but affecting some less developed countries) in comparison with the devastation of katrina. Well first of all victims... close to 200,000 in the tsunami waves and only 10,000 in the usa. A much larger surface was affected by last decembers waves still when the waves hit last year the gas price didn't go up so fast of so much. I remember they were speaking about 50$/gallon. What does that mean? That the USA controls pretty much everything... disasters keep happening at an incredible rate (global warming rings a bell) but the sad thing is that only when it affects USA it turns into a global problem. The gas price are in my non-expert opinion only the beginning... the price of the dollar is going DOWN way DOWN. I can't even imagine where it is going to stop... It will be great for the USA because they will make some money on the back of the rest of the world after the disaster it faced. Of course the rest of the world also compensated for the war in Iraq and I haven't saw Romania or any other country wining something out of it except of course Bush's close friends which really needed that gas pipes...Well it seams I ended up talking about the war...I'm sorry because those billions of $ that Bush has spent on a pointless war would have really made a difference for us or the poor guys in Africa which die daily from hunger and specially for those in the tsunami waves and New Orleans. Every american should be blamed for voting Bush...

[AbstracT 0]

gas prices are getting to be ridiculous and all its going to do is addmore problems and commotion. prices keep rising but peoples pay checks aren't and when people s top being able to afford the gas people will start stealing gas from other peoples cars filling up extra gas jugs which will make the gas stations run out quicker and maybe raise theprices more for the transport of more gas...all of this madness id crazy and i hope something gets sdone about it soon or its just going to be worldiwde mayhem

[saga 0]

in every disaster a few people benifit from it. seeing the oppurtunity they exploit it to their satisfaction. This people are the powerful and the elite of every society.The law of supply and demand is the oldest trickery in economics. It is to exploit the fact that you have what they need and dont have. This law is the child of human greediness.In the situation of katrina, i believe that it is unjust to increase oil prices since it was the refinery that was damage not the flaw of supplies. Are your government saying that becuase of katrina there is no or there is low circulation of gasoline. There are still gasoline in every gas station and the circulation is not cut off. Sattelite gas storage all over your country still has gasoline on its tanks and will not be empty in just a few days. It was just the refinery of unrefined oil that was damaged I beleive. A few weeks the refinery will be repair and the gasoline we be reinforced before circulation dries up.Once again the elite and powerful has exploited the situation your country is undergoing. Seeing the disaster, it gives them excuse to raise gasoline prices. And as always, your government which is run by the elites and the powerful of your society turn its back againts the victims and its nation by letting oil companies increased prices. After all those comanies are one with the politicians.

[Saint_Michael 3]

well the good news is that gas prices are starting go down, its less then $3.00 where i live, and thats a good sign, so hopefully it keeps on going down to a $1.

[shadowdemon 0]

i didnt vote for bush i didnt vote at all(sry had to say that)Yea i agree but here in Ct gas is only at 3:09 but some of the gas busisness are like over pricing in the state above louisianna the gas is $6.30 cause those people in louisiana need to et somewhere so those grtiefers jacked there prices up.

[jlhaslip 4]

Okay, so how does this sound to everybody...I live in a relatively remort part of Westen Canada. In the middle of the Rockies. It is a beautiful part of the world, for sure. Unfortunately, the cost to ship things in and out of here is expensive by North American standards. Anyways. So the price of gasoline is around $1.229CDN per litre. Sounds cheap? Or is it? There are 3.78 litres in a US gallon, so do the math. That works out to $4.65CDN per US gallon. Still sounds cheap, right?Except the exchange rate is in your favour, so let's do that next. Let's use a factor of about .85. I'm too lazy to go get the detailed exchange rate, but that's close enough. So the price of our gas is now $3.95US/US gallon. Still cheap? Consider that Western Canada is a NET EXPORTER of Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and other byproducts of the PetrpChemical industries. WE HAVE THE PRODUCT!!!! We don't have to ship it in from anywhere, only within the region. We produce enough to ship out to other parts of Canada, the US and the rest of the World. None of our Refineries were shutdown due to the hurricane, yet we are paying the price of those closures. Make any sense to you???