So much for the hope of a stronger dollar and cheaper oil ..

at least for the last two days. The EU wants to raise interest rates to prevent runaway inflation (making their currency a more attractive investment than ours) and people think our economy stinks (so they don't want to invest here). All this leads to a falling dollar and rising oil prices because our friends in the Middle East want more of our devalued dollars in exchange for their oil. Simple right? Well then you also have to consider all the speculators, perhaps the same ones who previously drove the NASDAQ and housing bubbles, and the fact that many of the oil rich nations of the world are politically unstable, see Iran as one example from today's headlines.

It's a much more complex issue than many realize so I would hope everyone being critical of the oil companies would at least consider there are many other variables that are contributing to the prices we are paying at the pump. For anyone who does not realize it yet, the oil companies big profits are coming from the relatively small amount of crude oil being extracted from the ground here in the US due to the high price they can get for that crude in the global market. See my previous comments on this topic in response to a Republican editorial here and here.

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