Oil Settles Above $145 For The First Time

by Darren

The pain at the pump is becoming chronic, and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for motorists. Gas is now being sold nationally at around $4.10 a gallon, just in time for the Fourth of July weekend. At this stage of the game, crude oil prices are more than double what they were at the start of the year.

Steve Forbes talks about how the weak dollar affects the economy and keeps oil prices high in this video

As Steve Forbes says in this video, a lot of the problems going on right now appear to be related to the “weak dollar” policy of Ben Bernanke’s Fed. The weak dollar means investors are much more likely to invest money in gas, which essentially costs more for people paying in dollars. Add to this the chilling affect it has on economic growth, and you have a persistent problem that just doesn’t seem to be going away.

Another bad sign for consumers is the 62,000 jobs lost by the economy in June. This makes for a trend of worse losses each month for the first six months of the year, with nearly one half million jobs lost since the start of the year.

High oil prices, a weak dollar, a credit crisis, mortgage woes, and job losses are all helping to push consumers to the weakest consumer confidence in decades. All this gloom and doom has Obama and Clinton talking economy.

“Far too many Americans will spend this holiday out of work and struggling to provide for their families because of the failed policies of the last eight years,” Obama said Thursday.

“Americans across this country are hurting and today’s jobs numbers are just the latest indication,” McCain said. “Washington can no longer abdicate its responsibility to act. Our focus must be clear: enact policies to create jobs today.”