Is Oil going up - or are the speculators doing it?

In case you didn't hear about it, crude oil just went up to $10 a barrel on Friday.


I personally think that's kind of ridiculous and I'm seriously beginning to wonder where this comes from. Apparently the speculators can simply 'guess' or speculate on how much gas should be and shortly after that, we end up with higher gas prices.

The funny things is people are driving less so demand is down. The speculation puzzles me.

I'd like my inexpensive electic car now please....

Unless you live in New York, Boston, my former home of Chicago or somewhere else where a large percentage of residents use mass transit - you may realize that gas is getting pretty darn expensive. Right now cheap (HA!) around where I live is at about $3.83 a gallon.

My gasoline bill has gone up from about $20 a week to about $40. I would really like to get a cool electric car like the Fisker Karma:











Or an even cooler electric car like the Tesla Roadster:















But, unfortunately the $80,000 & $95,000 respective price tags are a smidgen ( or maybe 10 smidgen's) out f my current price range. For now my high-MPG Honda will have to do. But once I have the money - Tesla Roadster - here I come!

I give up - I caught the falling knife.

So, after checking my 401k and seeing it went down (again) a 2nd month I decided to reduce my risky contributions - (small -to mid caps & International funds) and instead increased my guaranteed funds and bonds.


There are a few reasons I made the decision:

1. The DJIA has lost 10% since the beginning of the year
2. The S& P 500 has lost about 13% since the beginning of the year
3. Gas hit $107 today for the first time ever.
4. People with Million-dollar homes - people who should have better credit than me, soon won't because there houses are getting foreclosed upon!
5. The dollar is losing it's traction against the Euro and the yen.
   

Hopefully, that 'guaranteed' amount will help me keep my head above water as the markets appear to tank.