Discussions on this site are very interesting and it may be helpful to understand the nature of the "Dollar"; cause of the falling dollar and rising prices is printing money out of thin air (nothing to back it).  So, not only are gas prices rising, so is everything else, at the same rate, and for the same reason.  Please read this explanation from Forbes Magazine.  Another issue to consider is that the Eastern oil rich countries are no longer using the U.S. Dollar, Iran being the latest.  Hillary Clinton said 'we can't go to war with all of them".  Iraq proposed the Oil Bourse first, we went to war, now Iran and Syria have followed.  They NO LONGER WANT our 'valueless paper dollars'!

In light of ALL this, please review the monetary policies of ALL our Presidential candidates and the ONLY one talking about monetary policies, the printing of money, the bureaucracy and unending expansion of the government, endless invasions (wars), eliminating the Federal Reserve (who is NOT a part of the Federal Govt, but a private international bank) and Federal Reserve PRINTS THE MONEY!

That person in Congressman Ron Paul, whom the media ignores and maligns, gets the largest crowds, more donations from our Military than ALL the other candidates combined (including Obama), gives specifics on cutting the deficit by $1 Trillion dollars the first year, will downsize the govt., eliminate the Federal Reserve, promote private enterprise, and supports freedom and prosperity for all, NOT the elites and corporatists and international banksters! 

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Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2012/02/22/gasoline-price...

Panic is in the air as gasoline prices move above $4.00 per gallon. Politicians and pundits are rounding up the usual suspects, looking for someone or something to blame for this latest outrage to middle class family budgets. In a rare display of bipartisanship, President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner are both wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing their newly extended Social Security tax cut gobbled up by rising gasoline costs.

Unfortunately, the talking heads that are trying to explain the reasons for high oil prices are missing one tiny detail. Oil prices aren’t high right now. In fact, they are unusually low. Gasoline prices would have to rise by another $0.65 to $0.75 per gallon from where they are now just to be “normal”. And, because gasoline prices are low right now, it is very likely that they are going to go up more—perhaps a lot more.

What the politicians, analysts, and pundits are missing is that prices are ratios. Gasoline prices reflect crude oil prices, so let’s use West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to illustrate this crucial point.

As this is written, West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) is trading at $105.88/bbl. All this means is that the market value of a barrel of WTI is 105.88 times the market value of “the dollar”. It is also true that WTI is trading at €79.95/bbl, ¥8,439.69/barrel, and £67.13/bbl. In all of these cases, the market value of WTI is the same. What is different in each case is the value of the monetary unit (euros, yen, and British pounds, respectively) being used to calculate the ratio that expresses the price.

In terms of judging whether the price of WTI is high or low, here is the price that truly matters: 0.0602 ounces of gold per barrel (which can be written as Au0.0602/bbl). What this number means is that, right now, a barrel of WTI has the same market value as 0.0602 ounces of gold.

During the 493 months since January 1, 1971, the price of WTI has averaged Au0.0732/bbl. It has been higher than that during 225 of those months and lower than that during 268 of those months. Plotted as a graph, the line representing the price of a barrel of oil in terms of gold has crossed the horizontal line representing the long-term average price (Au0.0732/bbl) 29 times.

At Au0.0602/bbl, today’s WTI price is only 82% of its average over the past 41+ years. Assuming that gold prices remained at today’s $1,759.30/oz, WTI prices would have to rise by about 22%, to $128.86/bbl, in order to reach their long-term average in terms of gold. As mentioned earlier, such an increase would drive up retail gasoline prices by somewhere between $0.65 and $0.75 per gallon.

At this point, we can be certain that, unless gold prices come down, gasoline prices are going to go up—by a lot. And, because the dollar is currently a floating, undefined, fiat currency, there is no inherent limit to how far the price of gold in dollars can rise, and therefore no ultimate ceiling on gasoline prices.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke uses a “core CPI index” that excludes food and energy to guide monetary policy. From Big Ben’s point of view, rising gasoline prices are not a problem. For the rest of us, they are becoming a big problem.

Over the centuries, gold has been “the golden constant”. Eventually, all prices equilibrate with gold. This is why gold represents the best available standard in terms of which to define the value of a monetary unit. Forty-one years ago, when the value of the dollar was defined in terms of gold at $35/oz, WTI was selling for $3.56/bbl.

Right now, the threat posed by rising gasoline prices is not just to family budgets. An even greater danger is that the government will use escalating oil prices as an excuse to do something stupid.

After President Nixon abrogated the Bretton Woods monetary arrangement in stages starting in September 1971, both gold prices and oil prices started to rise. The government responded by imposing wage-price controls. This made a bad situation much worse.

This time around, the stupid policies being considered to “deal with” rising gasoline prices include additional cuts in payroll taxes and higher taxes on energy producers.

During the 1970s, the toxic combination of a weak dollar, high tax rates, and onerous regulations introduced a new word into America’s economic vocabulary: stagflation. Reaganomics banished this word to the history books. Now, President Obama and Fed Chairman Bernanke are teaming up to give stagflation another try. It is not likely that Americans will like it any more this time around than they did 40 years ago


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they used to say the same thing about staying in high school and getting your HS diploma!  Today, a college degree is NO grantee of a job, even in your profession, unless you were at the top of your class, and then, you would have to prove your ability to do the job!  Many never meet the muster...

There are NO guarantees in this life, but death.

The real reason behind the truth of your statement about HS diplomas is the fact that a fair portion of those that graduate from HS only have a 7th grade education. Ask any business person this if you don't think it is true.

Aren't we all happy we have public education in its current form, which will only get worse as time creeps on? Is there anything left that our gov't can screw up? Sorry to be flaming the gov't here, that it is what it is.  

@craig - yes, this is the story today and is the reason I generally write at the seventh grade level - habit from my industry.

NCLB has done it's job!  Teachers retire early because they can no longer teach the basics, must teach to the test, and then do mounds of paperwork!

That is why Ron Paul stated to get rid of the Dept of Ed and allow the schools to return to local and state control.  The Fed Govt has NO business in our schools as one size never fit all!

"Press on; nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge

you must not have read my comment ^^^^ above in its entirety, because I asked you what your grad degree was in and if your career was reflected by that degree.

I wrote of my vast career but this forum lost it in the "saving' mode, so I'd have to type it again... hate when that happens...

Also, what data do you have to support THAT data to prove your point, or it's just unusable data... 

sure it can - it's just you and me kid - you are the 'schooling' snob here or you would never have mentioned it in the first place!

So, this is real, live data... otherwise it's just useless information.

In fact, you never answered ANY of my questions throughout the discussion.

It appears I'm wasting my valuable time here because I get paid to blog elsewhere...

-did you vet the Republican candidates, was another question you ignored...

so, you know about Romney's schooling; do you think THAT is all the research required for a candidate? 

So, your situation meets your data standards, which is less common than common.

My salaries doubled, and tippled, mid career, as well, without any 'degrees'.   Healthcare - Credentialing - Provider Relations - Contracting... educating ALL doctors offices in policies of HMO/PPO seven counties - HealthAmerica - this profession/career was one of many, but my last...

I used to believe your take on schooling, then my personal continuing education took over.  AND, Two daughters, one son in law,  college grads - two Penn State and one Edinboro - none work in their 'profession'... If they would have just started their successful careers w/o college, there would have been no student loans to repay.

Linda, You have some good posts and opinions, however I believe you are falling into the trap of not seeing the trees from the woods on occasion. Which is ok, cause we all do it at times, especially when we feel so strongly about one particular topic. That's why we are here discussing such things as we are.

Jeff & Linda, 

Jeff is correct, education level directly relates to income earned and has been this way a long time.

Linda is correct in that only about 20% of college grads end up in the field that they studied in their higher education and it has been this way for a long time.

Jeff is again correct because even the 80% that went on with higher education that end up in other fields other than what they studied still earn more on average than those without higher education. 

The problem is American kids compared to other industrialized nations are dummer by the day and people in India, singapore and other nations are studying and getting multiple degrees with desire to get a good clean non-industrial job.  Its not just the telemarketers in India, high paying jobs and PHD's are being outsouced also.   If you need an medical xray or legal contract read why would you pay $100 to $300 an hour for a good american citizen to do that work when sent by email you can have a highly educated, motivated pacific rim resident do the work for under $8.00 an hour?

We need way more effort on education or countries we used to consider 3rd world nations will continue to pass us by.  This is only half the problem because these other nations are also willing to out work us but another long running adage is 20% of us do 80% of the work and this is nothing new either.

And this is the main reason GAS PRICES ARE HIGHER because the new working class in the rest of the world, and the manufacturing in the rest of the world is now competing with us for the same resources.

It's not really a goverment conspiracy unless you believe our goverment went over seas and educated other countries while we were asleep.

 

 

My point it this, motivated people are certainly capable of getting educated outside of college.  Motivated people have an interest and peruse that passion and do whatever it takes to be successful/happy.

The chart showing how schooling equated to monetary success, thus the follow up on that admonition.

What are the stats on college dropouts who were more successful than those with degrees?  We know when youth start college, they have no idea where their interest lie.

Anyhow, going back and forth, we've pretty much covered the subject.  College isn't for everyone, so my philosophy is to encourage any youth to find their soul purpose and follow the path which leads them in that direction.  Finding and hanging with like-minded people, volunteering, taking a lesser job in your choice of industry just to get foot in the door and then learn like a sponge.  And if college is required to achieve that passion, then go for it. 

If we have health and happiness, we have it all!  That is what I wish for everyone. 

At the end of the day, if a person has a job they hate, while well paying, that is NOT success. Success if having a job you love, whether well paying or not.   And then there are jobs people take just to pay the bills, choice or not...  That's life.

Be not wise in thine own conceit, in thinking that thou hast learned all the skill which is to be learned already, farre deceived are thou if thou thinks so, for if thou live (til) thou art olde, yet thou mayest learne still.
Never leave studying and practicing till you come to the ground and until you have sounded into the depth of your Art.


- Swetnam, Joseph, Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence, 1617

@Dan - dumbing down our children has been going on for some time.  I learned more in my high school than I did in business school...

That's NOT true today, but kids coming out of college today aren't much more educated than we were coming right out of high school, unless they have a specific career/goal in mind.

Believe me, I worked with 'degree'd' people who had no common sense and practically stupid in goals to be achieved.  A degree doesn't impress me - the person impresses me, and if they have an advanced degree, I don't hold it against them - LOL

What I HAVE seen is people with degrees flaunt them when making a point as a means to try to intimidate others without degrees.  It didn't cause me to admire them or view their point valid because of it.  Actually, when they pull out that piece of paper when making a point, I feel sorry for them, it tells me they lost their impact in the discussion.

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