Night before last, I paid $3.989/gallon for 87 octane. Diesel was $4.699/gallon.
It is interesting (read: a bit frightening) to see how this particular area is slowly withering away with the current economic issues. This city was actually little more than a farm town that somehow managed to attract a lot of industry. Alcoa Aluminum has a plant here, Caterpillar has a plant here, Wabash National has a plant here, Subaru's only American assembly plant is here (where they also build the Toyota Camry), etc.
The city has always had an Area Plan Commission that was intended to oversee new construction in the area, to ensure infrastructure was never over-taxed. This lot of bandits spent more time selling permits to homeowners that wanted to plant a shrub in their front yard and allowed development companies to run amok with new housing. Every square inch of land now has a new home sitting on it.
With fuel prices where they are, the trucking industry is staggered and Wabash National is having trouble trying to give away their trailers. So they are laying people off on a fairly regular basis. Caterpillar has managed to come up with a couple of decent contracts, but the insiders claim this business is only expected to last 14-18 months. All the other factories have virtually no business and are operating at minimal employee levels.
And everywhere you look, there are new homes that are sitting empty. Builders and developers are offering incredible purchase incentives, but the fact is nobody can afford a new home. Or they can no longer qualify for a mortgage, now that the banks are finally waking up from the sub-prime dream. With these incredibly-priced new homes available, pre-owned homes are worth virtually nothing. My 6 year-old condo now appraises for about $6K less than I paid for it.
As the factories continue to lay people off, the home foreclosure lists in the local newspaper grows longer and longer. People like myself, who work in the high-performance aftermarket, are in danger of losing our jobs, as people no longer have the disposable income they once enjoyed. When a family cannot afford to pay the mortgage, building a street rod or race car is completely out of the question. With the exception of the filling stations and grocery stores, retailers are cutting their prices to the quick and still cannot sell product.
But we should all rejoice in the knowledge of the oil companies reporting not only record sales, but record profits as well.
I have a pal in Perthshire, Scotland, just north of Stirling. Day before yesterday, fuel was selling at $9.30/gallon. I'm afraid we've not seen the end of rising fuel prices...