Stock market, Fuel, Food?

Question

Does anyone have any idea about where the economy is going, how high fuel costs will go, will we have enough food, and will everything ever be like it used to?

Answer 1

The next 5 years will be very interesting times. The rest of the world already pays more than we do even now for gasoline and they pay per liter, not gallon.

With the introduction of ethanol, fuel burns hotter and cleaner, but lower overall mileage per tank is enountered requiring more fuel for the same distance thereby negating any positive effect on the environment.

Corn farmers and fertillizer companys stand to gain as well as shareholders, but with almost 1/3 of the US corn supply going for fuel, it has had a ripple effect on the supply/demand of the world pushing up prices and places like Walmart putting a limit on the amount of rice you can buy in one visit.

It's not the end of the world, but things will get worse before they get better. I predict that gas pump prices will break $5 gallon within 2 years from now.

The federal govt should have never instituted the ethanol requirement and should also allow lower income families to recover a portion or all of the federal fuel tax on their income tax returns.

I think many will see a noticeable change in the amount of smaller cars we will be driving, and the amount of bikes that will be sold (hint- bike company stocks).

We will have to wait and see how accurate my forecast is.

Answer 2

Jeff Rubin, the ever-bullish oil forecaster and chief  economist at CIBC World Markets, can't keep pace with crude's meteoric rise.

  Four months after predicting world oil prices will soar to $150 US a barrel  by 2012, Rubin adjusted his outlook much higher Thursday -- a day crude prices  declined more than $2 US a barrel as investors bolted from commodities -- in a  report that stands to drive North American bicycle sales through the roof.

  Rubin now says oil prices will average $150 US in 2010 and an unfathomable  $225 US in 2012, with Canadian gasoline prices topping $1.40 a litre this  summer but skyrocketing all the way to $2.25 by 2012.

  CIBC's chief strategist has plenty of critics, but twice this decade he  accurately read the tea leaves on oil's march past $80 and $100....

  The basis for Rubin's argument this time? In a report titled The Age of  Scarcity, he said world crude oil production has not increased in two and a  half years, but rather the supply increases reported by the likes of the  Paris-based International Energy Agency have come from natural gas liquids  (NGLs)...

  The report predicts growth in the sale of new vehicles like the $2,500 Tata  and Chery models now being sold in emerging economies such as India, China and  Russia means millions of new households will "suddenly have straws to  start sucking at the world's rapidly shrinking oil reserves."...

  Frank Atkins, an economist at the University   of Calgary, who two years  ago worked as a consultant to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting  Countries, said Rubin's outlook makes sense on several fronts but contends  Rubin is also selling a low-probability scenario that stands to benefit CIBC  World Markets....

  "I myself believe the pressure on oil should be downward but when it  happens is anyone's guess. Likely when the U.S.  economy stops slipping, the U.S.  dollar finds its ground and people stop taking their money and buying oil  futures as a safe haven."

Answer 3

Stock Market up to some extent is a function of Fuel prices in overall economy. Fuel is bound to go still up and up. Food, as it is also needed by poors, will not go that up as compared with fuel.

But if Americans do a little less 'Expenditure', Poors measuring 100 times the population of the US, will get adequate food for their next 10 generations. The GOD will bless the US.

Answer 4

Nothing will ever be like it used to.  The one thing that remains constant is CHANGE.

Fuel costs will probably continue to increase -- people in Europe already pay an equivalent of $6 per gallon of gas.  We're been spoiled rotten with our low gas prices and it's coming to bite us (and everyone including myself whine about it).

We will always have enough food.  Being one of the major food producing countries in the world, we'll be fine in this area.  Food prices may increase, and there may be shortages of certain types of food (Pacific Salmon for example), but we'll always have enough food.