Bike to work

A few weeks ago I said how silly it is to bike to work. I still stand by everything I said, but in honor of National Bike to Work day I am encouraging everyone to bike to work. Not to save money or to be green, but because biking is FUN! And honestly you are less likely to run me over on your bike than you are driving in your car while talking on your cell phone, flipping through your iPod, shaving, and giving yourself a pedicure. So leave the car at home, dig the bike out of the garage and I'll see you on the road.

popping the bubble

I mentioned in my last post a co-worker was sure the price of gas was inflated and eventually the bubble will have to burst. Today Paul Krugman states otherwise. It's starting to scare me how many times in the past few weeks Krugman and I have agreed.

$30?

This week a co-worker of mine sent me an article that suggest the price of gas has been inflated, by shading dealings in future dealings. The article suggest oil should be closer to $60 a barrel, instead of $120. Now if that is correct then eventually we will see a sudden drop in gas prices, personally I think it is bunk. I'm still predicting you'll be seeing $4 prices before the summer is out (In fact I'm so confident in that I'm going to be some Exxon stock tomorrow). But the presidential election may give an opportunity for us to test this theory. Now true to my word I'm staying with the badical sabatical and I won't mention the election. But I will mention an idea some of the canidattes have. Two "defenders of the poor" want to get rid of the gas tax for the summer. That would save us 18 cents a gallon or an estimated $30 over the summer. Now if my friend is right and the price is inflated than we will save close to 18 cents on the gallon (you will never actually save all 18 cents, part of the tax is absorbed by the oil companies). But if the demand is still high enough for oil (ie. high enough to keep raising prices) than we will actually only save 8 or even 6 cents a gallon.
So far 2 presidential candidates (one from each party) think it is a good idea.
And 2 economist (Krugman and Mankiw) think it is lunacy.
As usual, I'm siding with the economist.