Economy turning around?

[nofearfactor]

I heard a news piece couple of days ago about how this past Christmas's spending was a record for Christmas/holiday retail sales as was total retail spending for the year 2011- 2 trillion or so. The automobile industry is getting healthier with strong sales, etc, etc. Sounds like there may be people who are down, but theyre not completely out... We're working at my house and things were actually better financially for us in 2011 than any of the last 8 years we have been married. And I know my wife is doing her part to boost that record retail sales number. Her reasoning though is that in a down economy if you're lucky enough to have extra money to spend beyond your bills, expenses, and your personal savings program then you should do so, that way you are helping the economy.

 

[nofearfactor]

$5 a gallon is on the horizon. it is only a matter of time...

When I was still living full time in the bay area of California in 2001 I remember it was over 4 bucks a gallon there then. You just got used to it. Now I live part time equally in California, Iowa and Oklahoma and its about the same wherever I am. Still not getting rid of the one V-8 I have no matter how high it gets- and my tune on my GT calls for 91 octane.

 

[HMFIC]

A good indicator of the state of the economy is the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index which tracks the quantity of diesel fuel sales in the trucking industry.

http://www.ceridianindex.com/

http://www.ceridianindex.com/about-the-index/multimedia/

I like that. Thanks for posting!

 

[dutchwrangler]

I like that. Thanks for posting!

You're welcome.

The economy moves by truck for the most part and this industry is the first to reflect movements in it. I know when the economy tanked I went from driving 3300 miles per week to 1000 miles simply because there wasn't freight to haul. Thousands of trucking companies went belly up. Fortunately at the time my only bills were for the food I ate on the road so I weathered the downturn just fine. Other drivers were in a panic because of the bills back at the homestead that they couldn't cover.

When I was still living full time in the bay area of California in 2001 I remember it was over 4 bucks a gallon there then. You just got used to it. Now I live part time equally in California, Iowa and Oklahoma and its about the same wherever I am. Still not getting rid of the one V-8 I have no matter how high it gets- and my tune on my GT calls for 91 octane.

When I was living in Sudbury, Ontario a few years ago the wife and I were paying about $5.25USD per gallon.

 

[tRidiot]

I remember paying over $5US/gallon in Europe over 5 years ago. Sure wouldn't want to drive my Tahoe over there now, as it's supposedly over $8US/gal. And oil was $10US/litre there at that time. I remember being FLOORED when I saw signs for service specials that were 99 Euros!


<edit> I spent 10 minutes searching the web trying to figure out how to make a Euro symbol on my keyboard... unfortunately, none of the key combinations I found work.

 

[dutchwrangler]

I remember paying over $5US/gallon in Europe over 5 years ago. Sure wouldn't want to drive my Tahoe over there now, as it's supposedly over $8US/gal. And oil was $10US/litre there at that time. I remember being FLOORED when I saw signs for service specials that were 99 Euros!


<edit> I spent 10 minutes searching the web trying to figure out how to make a Euro symbol on my keyboard... unfortunately, none of the key combinations I found work.

Alt + 0128

&#8364;

 

[tRidiot]

No workie. :þ


<edit> &#8364;

Oops.... I tried that several times, but I guess my fingers are more drunkerer than my head.

 

[been]

its all part of the plan.