On the rise

Gee, didn't see this coming during the summer driving season.

The price of crude oil once again seems to be defying the economic forces of gravity.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest prices should be falling. In industrialized countries, storage tanks are overflowing, with enough supplies to cover 62 days of use, about 10 days more than usual. Economic weakness continues to depress world demand, which is on track to fall for the second consecutive year. And oil-producing countries, while restraining output, are adding to production capacity. New Saudi Arabian wells coming on line this year will exceed the entire production capacity of Texas.

But instead of dropping, the price of crude oil rose to more than $65 a barrel yesterday, the highest in more than six months. And some analysts said it could rise even higher as the summer driving season arrives. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said this week that a $75-a-barrel price was within reach.

I'm no expert of economics, but it seems to me that the so-called forces of the marketplace can be manipulated by the super rich. If that's the case, then aren't the only people who face any real risk in the market the nonrich and unconnected people who are foolish enough to wander into the market and hand their money over to the super rich? And isn't "playing the market" just a matter of trying to guess what the super-rich are going to do next?

Take a look at the following charts, from the Energy Information Administration. Together, they cover the past three years, including the 2006 midterms and the 2008 presidential election (click the charts to enlarge).



Look at what happened to the retail price of gasoline right before November 2006 and November 2008: It dropped dramatically, only to go back up in time for the summer driving season. To be sure, I've made this point before (here, here, here and probably other times as well), but I wanted to post an updated chart that showed what has happened to prices since the election. Sure enough, they're on their way back up. And the Post article referenced above cites analysts who think the price of oil is going to keep climbing. You can track the retail price of gasoline here.

One other, unrelated, thing from the Post article to note: It seems that Ocean City, Md., has an interesting way of tracking the number people who visit the town.

In the Washington area, more people appeared to have taken to the road for the Memorial Day weekend; the beach resort of Ocean City, using wastewater use to track the volume of toilets flushed, estimated that it received more Memorial Day weekend visitors than it had since 1993.

Or it could mean that the quality of seafood in the Atlantic isn't what it used to be.

Drill here, drill now

Like so many failed ideas championed by the Right, it's coming back. And it's probably not just because Republicans are really, really bad at coming up with new ideas and instead just continue to recycle (who says they aren't environmentalists?) ideas that have already either failed or been debunked or rejected.

An already debunked idea like this can gain popular traction only when gasoline prices are high. And if Republicans are planning on bringing back this tired meme this summer, guess what else is coming back just in time for summer driving season?

If you said “high gas prices,” give yourself a point.

Take a look at the following chart from the Energy Information Administration.


Compare the two big price dips on the chart – from August to November '06 and the one that began in October '08 (both right before national elections, by the way, which I'm sure is a coincidence). In the first case, the price continued to fall until February 2007, when it began to climb.

Sound like anything you've observed lately?

By May 2007, gas prices were higher than they were in August '06, the start of the drop.

In July 2008, gas cost $4.10 per gallon and began falling. By the time of the November election, the price had dropped 41 percent, to $2.40.

If history is any guide, we are looking at gas prices above $4.10 per gallon by Memorial Day weekend. And the fact that Republicans already are planning to revive “drill here, drill now” tells me that they know this is coming.

And if they know this is coming, that means the price of oil isn't subject only to magical market forces beyond anyone's control. It means that the price is being manipulated, and that Republicans are coordinating their actions with those doing the manipulating.

Recession

Hitting some harder than others.

The chief executive officer of U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp was awarded a $4 million bonus in 2008 and will receive a 10 percent increase in his annual salary in 2009, according to a regulatory filing.

Rex Tillerson, the chief of the world's largest publicly traded company, was also granted 225,000 shares of restricted stock, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

As of January 1, the executive's salary will be $2.06 million.

Last year, Tillerson received a bonus of $3.4 million and his salary was $1.87 million. At that time, Tillerson was granted 185,000 shares of restricted stock.

How did you do this year?

Warning

I'm sure the fact that the presidential election is over has nothing to do with this.

The International Energy Agency, which advises industrialized nations on energy policy, warned on Thursday that the supply shortfalls that pushed oil prices into triple-digit territory this year are far from resolved, and could lead to a new period of high prices.

Oil has plummeted from its summer peak in recent weeks as the financial and economic slowdown reduced consumption. But many analysts believe oil could bounce back quickly once economic growth resumes. On Thursday, oil futures in New York settled at $60.77 a barrel, down $4.53, their lowest level in 19 months. Prices are now 58 percent below their peak of $145.29 a barrel in July.

So the supply shortfalls that lead to higher prices are unresolved, but the price of oil kept dropping. I guess it's just a coincidence that this warning came two days after election day.

Funny how the normal rules of the free and unfettered marketplace don't seem to apply when a Republican candidate needs a boost.

Something Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward said two years ago while prices were going higher sends chills: "They could go down very quickly. That's the Saudis' pledge." According to Woodward, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, "told President Bush that the Saudis would cut oil prices to ensure a strong economy for Election Day." This prediction has come to fruition.

U.S. oil company executives also possess the power to allow price drops for the election. They have enough room to play -- including last year's collective $100 billion in record profits and Exxon Mobil's own near record $10.6 billion profits this past quarter. Oil executives are full of fear over new leadership in a Congress that would investigate them.

[...]

An "improved" economy is a political boon to incumbent legislators. The Dow Jones high has appeared when gas prices on average dropped nearly 80 cents. It's as though the U.S. doesn't want to know why the prices are declining; we're just too happy about it to care.

The U.S. could again be frustrated when the Saudis and oil executives close the spigot after the upcoming elections. Maybe then we'll want to know why the gas prices arbitrarily fluctuate.

There's nothing arbitrary about it: People in positions of power and wealth tend to protect those positions, and oil companies are not about to sit back and let their profits hinge on an uncontrolled election. It's not an accident that the gas prices fell far and fast in the two months leading up to the election. The same thing happened ahead of the midterm elections in 2006.


This chart, from the Energy Information Administration, tracks the price of gas from May 2006 to this month. There are only two significant price drops on the chart. The first one is from September to November 2006, when prices fell from more than $3 per gallon to about $2.20 per gallon. The other significant price drop was from September to November 2008 -- the run-up to this week's election -- when prices fell from more than $3.80 to $2.40.

Note what happened to gas prices after the '06 mid-terms: As soon as the winter ended, they went way up. From February to May 2007, the price of gas went up more than a dollar a gallon, and ended up higher than their highest point in the six months before the election (the oil companies making up for the discount). If that happens again, we're looking at more than $4.20 per gallon by the middle of next year.

So don't get used to these prices. If oil companies can keep them artifically low to boost candidates they prefer, they can keep them artificially high to screw the ones they don't. So if you need gas, get it while you can still afford it.

Another record

The filthy rich get filthier, at your expense.

Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday soaring oil prices pushed its second-quarter earnings up 14 percent, again breaking its own record for the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company.

Net income in the quarter rose to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, last year.

Exxon -- the world's largest publicly traded company -- previously set the high-water mark for quarterly earnings in the fourth quarter of last year, when it brought in $11.66 billion.

Despite the new record, Exxon's results lagged behind analyst expectations.

Uh oh. That last part sounds like prices aren’t coming down anytime soon ever. Because you know how Wall Street works: Keep the stock price up, or you’re a failure. Sure, you made $11.7 billion in three months, but look at the stock price.

So, how’d you do this quarter? Make anywhere near $128.4 million a day?

Indicted

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on seven counts.

Read the indictment here.

McSame

It seems John McCain is so like George Bush that they even share the same scandals.

Last week Payne, who has visited Kazakhstan several times including accompanying Cheney on his trip there, said no payment had occurred and that he had never closed a deal with KMG.

“Neither I, , nor any other entity that I am associated with have ever worked for any entity in Kazakhstan,” he said in a statement.

The Sunday Times, however, has discovered the existence of a channel through which funds from the Kazakh government could have been readily transferred.

A sister company to WSP, Worldwide Strategic Energy (WSE), of which Payne is also president, has a subsidiary, Caspian Alliance, which is the sole US representative for KMG.

The disclosure is contained within a draft of a 44-page WSE “placement memorandum” brochure circulated to potential energy investors last year. It adds that the Caspian Alliance was “providing KazMunayGas with political risk analysis as well as access to energy leaders and executives”.

When contacted by The Sunday Times, staff at the Caspian Alliance, which is based in Azerbaijan, confirmed that it is a subsidiary of WSE and represents KMG in America.

In a further link, Randy Scheunemann, chief foreign policy and national security adviser to John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, was listed in the WSE brochure as part of its executive team. Scheunemann and Associates, his lobbying firm, is reported as having represented the Caspian Alliance in 2005.

At the undercover meeting last week, Payne said Scheunemann had been “working with me on my payroll for five of the last eight years”. When confronted over the link to KMG, Payne declined to comment.

If nothing else, McCain would make for a smooth transition. It would be like Bush never left.

Stimulus package

David Vitter Isn’t the only Republican supporting the sex industry.

An unforeseen and surprising beneficiary of the Economic Stimulus Plan, a plan that George Bush contends will "boost our economy and encourage job creation," has surfaced this week. An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans' mailboxes across the country.

[...]

Jillian Fox, spokeswoman for LSGmodels.com, one of the sites reporting figures to AIMRCo, added, "In a June 15, 2008 survey to our members, thirty two percent of respondents referenced the recent stimulus package as part of their decision to either become a new member, or renew an existing membership."

But not all segments of the sex industry are feeling the love.

Nevada brothels that cater to long-haul truckers are offering gas cards and other promotions after seeing business decline as much as 25 percent from a year ago, industry officials said.

In response to a 5 percent drop in business, the Shady Lady Ranch along U.S. 95 about 150 miles north of Las Vegas plans to offer $50 gas cards to clients who spend $300 and $100 gas cards to those who spend $500.

The brothel also offers special monthly discounts, including an offer of 45 minutes of services for $175 instead of the usual rate of $200.

Under a promotion under way at the Moonlite BunnyRanch near Carson City, the first 100 customers who arrive with government stimulus checks receive twice the services for the same regular price.

"We're calling it double your stimulus," said BunnyRanch owner Dennis Hof. "The brothel industry is having to get more creative just like all consumer products in America. Everybody has got to deal, and we're doing the same thing."

The downturn also has affected brothels by leading to an increase in the number of women seeking jobs as legal prostitutes, Arnold added.

It’s also leading to an increase in the number of women seeking work as illegal prostitutes.

Police set up a sex sting at the Days Inn on Dixie Highway last weekend, expecting to arrest women who came there to trade sex for money.

They also found something else: a woman accused of trading sex for gasoline.

While doing surveillance at the hotel, officers spotted a woman they knew because of her criminal history.

They discovered she was there for sex – and that she was allegedly paid with a $100 gas card.

“When people are selling their bodies for gas, that’s pretty sad,” said Ken Easterling, chief prosecutor in the Kenton County Attorney’s Office.

McCain and the Enron loophole

Want to know why gasoline is so expensive and what can be done about it? Watch this.



H/T Crooks and Liars.

UPDATE: Energy industry analysts offer Congress a solution to the serious problem of rising fuel prices, a solution that would bolster every sector of the economy feeling the squeeze of expensive gasoline, not to mention families struggling to afford the gas to get back and forth to work.

The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday.

Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.

But ask George Bush, John McCain and GOP leaders in Congress, and they’ll tell you the answer is offshore drilling.

Kinda makes you wonder if Republicans have any intention of ever addressing this problem, and whom they’re really working for, huh?

But, then again, maybe those analysts are just being irresponsble.

How they voted

on the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, which would give federal and congressional employees four weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child, or taking in a foster a child. The bill also would make it easier to use sick leave to care for a new child.

The bill passed despite 145 Republicans and one Democrat voting against it. But of course Bush plans to veto it. According to the Washington Post, the White House called the bill a "costly, unnecessary, new paid leave entitlement." In other words, it’s a reckless use of taxpayer dollars.

In other news, The White House reached an agreement with the House Wednesday for $165 billion in “supplemental” funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House had to agree to the inclusion of Jim Webb’s 21st Century GI Bill in exchange for permission to continue torturing detainees and to persue a status of forces agreement that will leave American forces stationed in Iraq forever, or at least until the day after it runs out of oil.

With another $165 billion heading out the window, the White House’s “costly” argument rings kind of hollow, eh? Let’s face it: The real reason 145 Republicans voted against this bill and the real reason Bush will veto it is that the bill throws a crumb to people who work for a living.

Remember this the next time you hear a Republican talking about how important it is to help families.

Protecting the windfall

In case you were wondering whose side Republicans are on.

HINT: Not yours.

Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline.

The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge.

The oil companies have people in Congress protecting their interests. Shouldn’t you have someone there protecting yours? To vote for a Republican is to vote against your own interests. And that would be stupid.

Don‘t be stupid.

Misstated

Why is that word in the lede of the Reuters story about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s finding that the Bush administration lied us into war in Iraq, as though the many lies they told were a series of innocent errors?

President George W. Bush and his top policymakers misstated Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq's arms programs as they made a case for war, the Senate intelligence committee reported on Thursday.

Oops.

Statements that Iraq had a partnership with al Qaeda were wrong and unsupported by intelligence, the report said.

Our mistake. Our bad.

It said that Bush's and Cheney's assertions that Saddam was prepared to arm terrorist groups with weapons of mass destruction for attacks on the United States contradicted available intelligence.

How embarrassing!

“Unsupported by intelligence.” “Contradicted available intelligence.” So much for all that bullshit we were fed about intelligence failures, huh?

But “misstated,” even as evidence mounts that the administration’s many, many statements about the threat Iraq posed to the United States were “unsupported by” or “contradicted” intelligence? Why is the media so afraid to call lies lies and liars liars?

$4 gas

I predicted that we would hit $4 per gallon on May 22. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.875 nationally, but if you combine that with the average national prices for midgrade and premium, the average price for gasoline nationally is $4.084 per gallon. Around the country, $4 per gallon has been seen in many places, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Click here to see the average price where you live.

Meanwhile, Ford expects gas prices, plus it’s own refusal to see this coming and make greater progress developing alternative-fuel vehicles, to lead to layoffs and lower profits. But don’t worry. I’m sure the executives all have golden parachutes that will allow them to land squarely on a huge pile of money while the company crashes and burns due to their mismanagement.

"There's no sense in talking about new records, because every moment of the day, you're setting a new record," said Ed Welsh of AAA.

I’m sure that, sooner or later, someone in Washington will connect record gas prices with oil companies’ record profits. Probably right around Jan. 20, 2009, because you know the current collection of scumbags with an R after their names won’t do a fucking thing about it.

Right on schedule

for gas to hit $4 per gallon by Memorial Day weekend, like I said it would. In some places, it’s ahead of schedule.

The average retail price of a gallon of regular grade gasoline in the U.S. rose to a new record high as the cost of a barrel of crude oil price continued its ascent, an industry analyst said on Sunday.

The U.S. average retail regular gasoline price rose to $3.7929 a gallon on May 16, up nearly 17 cents in the past two weeks, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations.

In two areas -- Chicago and New York's Long Island -- prices soared to an average of more than $4 a gallon for the first time, survey editor Trilby Lundberg said.

If I’m wrong, it won’t be by much.

Straight talk

A nickel for anyone who can make sense of this verbal scribble:

“No, I was thinking about- it’s not hard to- we will not,” [John] McCain stumbled. “By eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, we will not have to have our national security threatened by a cut off of that oil. Because we will be dependent, because we won’t be dependent, we will no longer be dependent on foreign oil. That’s what my remarks were.”

Funny story: McCain was trying to explain away comments he made Friday about the connection between oil and our war in the Middle East.

“My friends I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will – that will then prevent us – that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”

So we ARE in Iraq over oil! OK, we already knew that, but I guess that kind of talk is just a little too straight for a Republican presidential candidate.

I, for one, do not relish the idea of at least four more years of marble-mouthed imbecility from the White House.

When people say McCain is nothing but a third Bush term, I thought they just meant that McCain would continue Bush’s disastrous, tried-and-failed policies. But apparently it also means that we would be burdened with another chief executive who can’t explain his own comments and can’t form a sentence that isn’t written on a script.

Why would McCain, or any candidate who wants to even sniff a chance to win an election, make himself out to be a carbon copy of the most unpopular president in American history, whose every policy has been a complete disaster? Because McCain is not responsive to the will of the American people. McCain doesn’t support, and will not enact, policies that the majority of Americans support. He supports policies that further the interests of the monied minority behind the scenes, who stand to gain from policies like tax breaks for the wealthy, pre-emptive war for oil, for-profit healthcare, telecom immunity and a weakened OSHA, FDA, EPA and CPSC that are harmful to most Americans and to the country.

But hey, if you like government by corporations, of corporations and for corporations, by all means cast your ballot for John McSame, because the status quo is just great.

UPDATE: McSame, indeed.

John McCain’s senior campaign staff and President Bush’s senior White House staff are so close that the McCain folks let the Bush folks know in advance whenever McCain is about to distance himself from the unpopular president, says a top McCain aide.

McCain’s gas-price ‘solution’

Paul Krugman explains why John McCain’s gas-tax holiday is bullshit.

Why doesn’t cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It’s Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers.

In other words, it’s Steal from the Poor and Give to the Rich, straight from the GOP playbook.

But the consumer ends up paying the same price, you say, so how is this stealing from the poor? Because this plan lowers the amount of money the federal government collects in taxes. That means the government has less money to spend. Which means spending cuts are inevitable. And which programs do you think Republicans look at first when the treasury comes up a little short? Things like Medicare, LIHEAP, housing aid for the disabled, student loan programs and environmental protection. These are all things that rich people don’t need, use or are too stupid to care about, and the Bush administration has proposed cuts to all of these programs.

Between McCain’s gas tax holiday and his proposed tax cut for healthcare spending, which also diverts money from the federal treasury to the pockets of private companies, one wonders how if McCain plans to address the deficit at all, and how he plans to fund any government spending. I guess in his view, people will be able to pay for a $12,000 health insurance policy with a $5,000 tax credit, and that people with pre-existing conditions will magically receive insurance, even though insurance companies refuse to cover them. I guess in his view, all those rotting roads and bridges around the country are going to repair themselves. I guess in his view all those people who can’t cover the skyrocketing cost of higher education will wash dishes for the rest of their lives, and somehow this makes us more competitive in the world market. I guess in his view it’s OK if people have to choose which prescription drugs to take and which to skip because they simply can’t afford the medicines they need. Maybe they should’ve been like him and had an admiral for a father and then become a senator so they too could be on government-funded healthcare their entire lives.

It’s not that he doesn’t care about these people and these issues. It’s just that he wants to be president so badly that he’s willing to sacrifice them and all of his principles to get it.

New CENTCOM commander

After the biggest speedbump between the administration and the neocon wet dream of a third concurrent foreign war was forced out, guess who George nominated to replace him? As you might have guessed, it’s a yes man.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who led troops in Iraq for the past year, will be nominated by President Bush to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Gates said he expected Petraeus to make the shift in late summer or early fall. The Pentagon chief also announced that Bush will nominate Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno to replace Petraeus in Baghdad.

Central Command oversees the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

I guess that with Congress’ reluctance to criticize Petraeus, BushCo feels it needs Petraeus’ credibility (as nobody within the administration has any left) to ease its third march to war.

I can see it now: Soon we will start hearing reports of all kinds of provocative activity by Iran, intelligence reports of WMD development (or the knowledge of how to begin to start to prepare to learn how to develop WMD-related programs), and, just as gas nears $4.50 a gallon and BushCo is in need of a huge distraction, probably around July 4, BOOM! Shock and Awe Part Deux! Neocons watch the explosions and carnage on Faux News with their pants around their ankles, and John McCain poses for adoring black-and-white photos in the White House situation room, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, studying maps and shit with Petraeus, Bush, Cheney and The Gang, looking all competent and involved and presidential, and suddenly the Democrat’s lead in the polls disappears as the rudderless campaign of an uninspiring, out-of-touch septuagenarian is transformed by the steely, squinty glare of a war hero returning to rescue us from the scary brown people who were beginning to start to prepare to learn how to develop WMD-related programs.

We take control of Iranian oil fields and promptly remove their output from the world's oil supply, Halliburton gets a shitload of lucrative no-bid defense contracts and Richard Perle gets his first non-Viagra-related boner since 2003. McCain jumps to the front of the polls and industries throughout the country breathe a sigh of relief as the specter of increased oversight and safety inspections slips away, and Bush and Cheney retire to their multimillion-dollar estates free of the fear of DOJ inquiries into the past eight years. And all it cost was the lives of a couple of hundred thousand Iranian civilians that nobody in D.C. gives a shit about anyway and a few thousand unfortunate U.S. troops. But, hey, as Republicans keep reminding us, they volunteered for duty, so fuck ’em, right?

Of course, the American people lose too. That is, the ones who aren’t rich. Because a vote for McCain, whether inspired by fear or not, is a vote to turn the eight-year nightmare that was the Bush administration into a 12-year nightmare. And, believe me, fear is the only tool left in the bag of a party whose policies for so long have benefitted the few at the expense of the many.

UPDATE: Well, you didn’t think he was suddenly going to start second-guessing BushCo, did you?

A prediction

Gas will hit $4 per gallon on May 22. Plan accordingly.

UPDATE: And gas will hit it’s lowest price on November 3. People who think gas prices are driven exclusively by magical “market forces” outside of the control of any individual or group, and not manipulated for political and, ultimately, financial gain, are kidding themselves. I guess they think it’s a coincidence that prices peak just ahead of holidays and drop right before elections.

Maybe the solution to the problem of rising fuel prices is to hold elections every month, so the oil industry can be constantly propping up weak-ass, unelectable Republican candidates.

Peak oil

This seems kind of important.

Russian oil production has peaked and may never return to current levels, one of the country’s top energy executives has warned, fuelling concerns that the world’s biggest oil producers cannot keep up with rampant Asian demand.

The warning helped on Tuesday to push crude oil prices to a fresh all-time high above $112 a barrel, threatening to stoke inflation in many countries.

It’s a finite resource, people, and getting finiter all the time.

$112

Next stop: $4 per gallon.

Oil surged to a record high over $112 a barrel on Wednesday after a government report showed a sharp drop in U.S. inventories ahead of the summer driving season.

U.S. crude settled up $2.37 at $110.87 a barrel after peaking at $112.21 and eclipsing the previous record of $111.80 hit March 17. London Brent settled $2.13 higher at $108.47 a barrel after hitting an all-time high of $109.50.

Remember when we were all shocked when oil closed above $100 for the first time? That was only 50 days ago. And by the end of next month, $112 a barrel will look like a bargain.