inflation what's it about

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles Oct 2, 2022.

[disneysteve]

Gas is down to $3.15 here. It’s been nice watching it drop nearly every day for nearly 4 months now.

[bjl584]

Gas is down to $3.15 here. It’s been nice watching it drop nearly every day for nearly 4 months now.

Crazy that we think $3.15 is a deal

[QuarterMillionMan]

ARCO $6.09 is the cheapest in Los Angeles. Chevron across the street is $6.59.

[james.hendrickson]

Los Angeles Oct 2, 2022.

Ugh. The prices are going back up.

[kork13]

Ugh. The prices are going back up.

Anytime there's a hurricane in the Gulf that interrupts oil production or processing, gas prices will tick upward. Even if the storm doesn't actually impact those production processes, even the risk & far of those things happening will lead to increased prices.

[crazyliblady]

Los Angeles Oct 2, 2022.

Wow! That's high. I noticed around $3.30/gallon where I live.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I just paid $4.99 on Friday 9/30. A week before on 9/23 i paid $4.49. 50 cents in less than a week. Makes me wish I was getting an electric car. But then again my car runs so it's a moot point

[ua_guy]

What the what with gas prices. Look at the level of production here in the US. Look at what price a barrel of crude is trading at. A lot of places by me have increased their prices to mid-$5. This is up from a couple weeks ago when gas was going mid-$4's. Absolutely bonkers.

The few stations that sell ethanol-free 93 octane around me are crack-pipe high at $6.39/gallon. During the height of fuel pricing (the last one), it was maybe $5.60/gallon.

I paid just under $20 today at Jack In The Box for lunch. Ok, I admit, I should have been eating that. Two burgers and a small drink. That was $13 not too long ago. Wages haven't gone up and food prices at the grocery store have been pretty even, even since the biggest jumps in pricing.

Is this absolute greed?

[QuarterMillionMan]

All of this could easily be fixed without getting into politics, gas could be $2 a gallon again. Instead, $10 a gallon looks likely the way things are going, sheesh. I just returned from Los Angeles to Tijuana and the roundtrip 300 total miles cost $100 when it used to be $50. To hedge against some of this insanity I bought the oil ETF at $85 a barrel. Also, I sold my gasoline ETF at the last highest price point, now I'm regretting selling due to gas reaching new highs and probably will hit new highs as well.

[QuarterMillionMan]

[disneysteve]

People are insane. 1K/month or 8-yr loans are a huge red flag that you’re spending way too much.

I mean I guess 1K might be okay if you have a high income but still seems a little ridiculous especially at 10%.

[ua_guy]

I did a bit of reading on why West Coast gasoline prices are still *ridiculously* high. Apparently the refineries "fuel island" in California deferred a bunch of maintenance during the recent production push and are now running into operating troubles and are having to take systems offline to repair them.

Groan.... it's time to regulate the ever-living poop out of this industry. Gasoline should be a dang utility as far as I'm concerned.

[MonkeyMama]

We just got back from Arizona. Enjoyed buying gas in the low 3s in AZ.
Was welcomed back to $7/gallon at the airport. $6/gallon at our cheapie gas station.

Edit: Hint as to why we don't drive gas cars Didn't mind driving a gas car in AZ & don't really care too much about prices here because we aren't paying them. But seeing that $7 was a little shocking.

[james.hendrickson]

Well - maybe we should look at why real wages aren't keep pace with inflation. That seems like its the real question to me.