The gas price is creeping up again. This weekend the regular unlead costs about $3.00 here in St. Louis. Last time it broke the $3 barrier is post Katrina. It seems siutation is not going to improve in the near future due to geopolitical reasons (Iran, North Korea), more importantly, the supply and demand trend. A few days ago I heard from NPR that number of cars in China increased 3 fold in past 3 years. I can tell it by visiting the apartment complex in Shanghai (so many cars, so little packing space). It’s good to see people are enjoying the “freedom of cars” in China, just like the American enjoyed in 1950 and 1960s. That was also the hey days of American car makers. There are certainlly problems comes with “car freedom” in China: traffic jam, air pullution, tensions between the “have” and “have not”, etc. The solution, however, won’t be simple. One top oil investor said “unless American got rid of the big SUVs, Chinese go back to bicycle, we are not going to see $1.50 gas”. Yes, I know, those 77 cents per gallon days is gone forever, that was 1998. The thing is at this price level, I don’t see most people reducing too much driving, not the middle class American and newly-emerged Chinese car lovers. I think for the people to take notice, the price must go higher. Maybe we will see $5 gas soon?
Related Posts
-
Merger and acquisition arbitrage
April 23, 2024<span class="rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time">2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> I talked about arbitrage quite a bit in my blog, but in terms of profit I didn’t make much until year 2022 – I followed Warren Buffett and bought into Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition. I got this idea when I attended #BRK2022 shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Most recently, I speculated a few more, one
Read More -
Cobble Together
April 20, 2024<span class="rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time">2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> cobble together per Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone has cobbled something together, you mean that they have made or produced it roughly or quickly. Or Google AI overview – “Cobble together” is an American English phrasal verb that means to produce something quickly or roughly, often without great care or effort. For example,
Read More -
Thinking about opening a Roth IRA
April 14, 2024<span class="rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time">3</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> I think I was pretty ignorant about the Roth IRA or Roth 401k until recently years. Some friends talked about Backdoor Roth IRA a few years ago. Around the same time (Sept 2021), I noticed my employer 401 k plan has a Roth option. Before that I already worked in the USA for about 21
Read More -
American Healthcare System III – 美国医疗系统之三: the medical bills are confusing
April 7, 2024<span class="rt-reading-time" style="display: block;"><span class="rt-label rt-prefix">Reading Time: </span> <span class="rt-time">2</span> <span class="rt-label rt-postfix">minutes</span></span> I talked about American Healthcare System I 美国医疗系统之一 and American Healthcare System II 美国医疗系统之二。Recently due to my older daughter’s ankle injury, I learned a bit more about the medical bills. We had two visits at Shriner’s hospital near the BJC at central west end: the initial encounter (encounter as in medical billing) and the followup
Read More