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Europe Celebrates Its Latest Recession With Record High Gas Prices
Just when you thought it was safe (well not really) to dip your toe back in the ocean of European equities on the back of the LTRO-enthused hope that credit contraction will cease and growth will return, we note another (perhaps more instantaneous) drag on the economic fortitude of the long-suffering people of the EU. Belgium's Beursduivel notes that the national average price for a liter of petrol (gas) has reached a Euro-zone record high of EUR1.76 which equates to a US (not imperial) gallon cost of (drum roll please) USD8.75 (given current EURUSD levels). As Greece, for example, basks in the hope of the failing Troika talks, they unfortunately will have to pay significantly more (double from 3 years ago) for their driving (or boat fuel) as despite the faltering economies across Europe, the price of petrol, diesel, and LPG are also near record highs - and all this without an actual Iran invasion.
Chart: Bloomberg
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Hell in Quebec, right now, it's 5.26$/gallon or 1.39$/L.
Good thing we have the unicorn piss to mitigate peak oil production.
Scope my comment below, LH, re the Brent Spread blowing out to $17 today.
And btw:
As Greece, for example, basks in the hope of the failing Troika talks, they unfortunately will have to pay significantly more (double from 3 years ago) for their driving (or boat fuel) as despite the faltering economies across Europe, the price of petrol, diesel, and LPG are also near record highs - and all this without an actual Iran invasion.
Greece imports 400,000 barrels/day. Brent's price today is $114.50. That's 16.7 billion dollars/year sent out of the country to pay for oil.
Greek GDP = $312 billion
$16.7 billion is 5.4% of that number, drained out of the country yearly.
It will now get worse.
nope, they'll replace it all with olive oil. and zeus gas. Greeks have divine powers. Zeus will dominate europa like a bull. You should live up to your avatar.
I'm pretty sure the record high gas prices might have something to do with the ECB's balance sheet. which looks almost the same as the Greek gas chart:
http://www.ftense.com/2012/02/behind-curtain-european-bank-bailout.html
The infamous stagflation is here to stay.
http://silverliberationarmy.blogspot.com/
lolmao, makes you wonder WHY it is they want gas low (or lower than the highest anyway) in the US, for the time being anyway? Placate the sheeple and hide the real truth and pain about how bad things actually are a bit longer?
Ya... maybe that'll be their ``solution`` to the deficit...
What we should do in Canada is stop exporting oil. Supply the demand here, with lower prices, and build our reserves. Screw China.
With neither of the new pipelines getting built, that is kind of what is happening.
What would make more sense is if there were higher royalties. That money could be used to subsidize domestic gasoline prices, or be used for other useful things such as:
1) balancing the budget
2) paying down the national debt
3) supplementing our USD reserves with some gold reserves
4) Really, almost anything is better than trying to go Venezuela style with $0.02 per litre gasoline.
Matt, better watch the green folks as the xl was really about corporate dollars. Personally I am glad it did not go through--we can all breath better.
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/6634699
Gas prices in Europe are high because of the taxes placed on it. Otherwise it would be about the same as North America. Peak oil has nothing to do with it, or Obama keeping the prices down for the sheep. The world oil price is set now in London (see London loophole) and is one of the reasons for high oil prices. The Enron loophole and the Goldman Sachs loophole are the other reasons.
Five dollah a gal. gas was the financial straw that broke the back of the economy in 08'. America was built to run on cheap energy and Americans will not, can not afford to pay high fuel prices. This is another reason the economy is crawling now. The higher the price goes the more I cut back on my driving, and spending.
Isn't obama paying your gas and mortgage?
Everything is Way past Obama. Obama is like BushCo, just there to take the heat. Neither one of them was/is smart enough to keep this Can-O-Crap rolling until now.
lol here in europe $1.8/L - $2/L
Yeah but you use cars way less than us.
We have to drive 2-3 hours every day just to go to work.
We have to drive 2-3 days just to get to work.
Fixed it for you.
We have to walk 2-3 days just to get to work.
Fixed it for you.
Nobody needs a car to go to work, only Americans believe they need a car for everything.
Taxi drivers use a car, it makes money, driving to work is a luxury. Take the bus.
In the Depression, people took the streetcar to work on Monday morning then slept in the store until Friday then they walked home. In NYC during the Depression a streetcar ride or subway was a nickel.
Americans need ... the idea of prosperity has been a bill of goods. Now the real bill is coming due: destroyed economies. Europe is in the process of becoming car-free, soon enough will follow the rest of the world. When car sales decline enough the factories must close.
War in the Middle East will accelerate the car-free process. Prices for fuel go up -- to a point. Then purchasing power is drained away from fuel customers who lose their jobs and companies fail. No need to drive any more to the job that doesn't exist, robbed away by the car toy that has no use nor provides a return.
The economic problem is at the end of your driveway. It demands a choice: drive a car of have a job. Next comes drive a car or die in a war, drive a car or have something to eat.
This dynamic is never going to stop, the choices will become harsher. ... until the cars go.
Your argument implies, let me be perfectly clear and unequivocal, the complete and total undoing of everything that happened in community layout planning in the past century - the premise of which was CHEAP GASOLINE + UNIVERSAL CAR OWNERSHIP.
That has been the trend for a century. Changing it will either be done gradually or you'll be too busy tilling the fields and tending the livestock to worry about gas prices.
Yep... that's pretty much what he said...
No.
Maybe fewer and fewer drivers in a near future.
These fewer drivers will inherit large accomodating structures (like in 2008)
while the pedestrians are going to flock to less and less friendly structures or even dangerous structures.
The inner cities have become warzones (Detroit, Newark) and the few livable areas are too expensive for the majority of people. They had no choice but to move to the surburbs and drive to work. Everyone I know who can take mass transit already does it.
I always took mass transit when possible. Some jobs I had a choice to drive to work in 15 minutes or take the bus, which would take nearly two hours to get me to work, which was 10 miles away. There are no bike lanes, so I don't plan on becoming roadkill.
Why would anyone take a car to work, if there are ailines and taxis????
My car runs on bullshit and, since I live in the greater DC area, my tank runeth over...
"Bullshit."
"Pigshit."
"What?!"
"Pigshit. Bartertown runs on pigshit."
I hear the referendum talk is slowly starting back up in Qc...
Fuck the only thing wrong with as awesome of a city as Montreal, is the complete hick's asshole province it's stuck in.
Bring on the war with Iran! Bullish!
It's close to USD $9 a gallon in the UK.
At least we got a half decent public transport system in Montreal :p
let's get that iranian embargo going and see if we can get it up to $10...
yes and like 80% of this price is tax, Germany took in 41B euro in 2004 from Mineralölsteuer alone + VAT that's like 15%+ of the entire budget!
The only thing not taxed in Europe still is Air, ..... no wait scratch that we have Co2 taxes galore!
So, at what point do you think the Europeans realize it's our inflation causing this...
I'm not inflating! As for you, well... stop it!
But FaceBook is going public??? Won't that fix all this stuff? Who uses gas anyway? (like)
Cheap gas in the US is the payoff we get for being the bag man in the Ponzi.
'Cheap gas' at $3.40 here...not that cheap. Was near half that when Obama took office but anywho, being the bagman for the Ponzi is about to wear out as well.
Cheap gas in the US is the payoff we get for having the most powerful military the world has ever seen.
exactly..which makes it not cheap after all. See debt (and everyone hating us)
One of the tylers has to be from Belgium. Ik heb dit al een tijdje geleden opgemerkt.
Maar enkel slechts herinnerd?
??
This doesn't make sense. I assume you used Google Translate?
Amusing to "roundtrip" and go back to English...
http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|Maar%20enkel%20slechts%20herinnerd%3F
Makes sense now...couldn't figure it out before!
Are carbon credits included?
-Edit-
Azannoth beat me to it.
--
Paying 1.25/L in Ontario right now. If I recall the Petro Canada sticker correctly, 45% of that tax. Wonder what the taxes are in Europe? Having problems googling that but don't really have time to look right now.
@Scisco
South Germany:
current petrol/gasonline price at the pump: EUR 1.55 / diesel EUR 1.44
taxes: 60 - 70%
Go Canada , go !
We need to beat the Yanks, nicht wahr ? ;-)
CNG, or LNG. I'm seeing increasing numbers of erdgas filling stations around.
The tax is lower, plus you can buy a device (basically just a compressor) which can be plumbed into the domestic gas supply which'll fill a CNG tank overnight from domestic gas. Strictly speaking I think it's illegal to run the vehicle on the roads with untaxed gas.
http://www.gasfill.com/
or
http://www.brcfuelmaker.it/eng/casa/chi_siamo.asp
In case anyone is watching . . .
The Brent Spread blew out to $17 today. There is nothing new that I know of re obstructions moving WTI at Cushing to the Gulf Coast, as had been taking place.
This smells, rather, like a supply problem shipping to Europe and China from the North Sea (as in extraction rate from the North Sea is accelerating its decline).
But...But...the reserves! There are reserves in the ground!
sarc/
What goes up, must come down once debtors are pulling me around in a rickshaw.
don't think anyone can or will pull you and six friends and their luggage 20 miles at 60 mph for four bucks.
Does anyone have gas prices(charts) pre 2008 for the U.S. They seem to have been removed from some sites.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DGASUSGULF
Like the great Wallstreetpro2 once said, "I mean, when you're borrowing money just to pay the interest....you are F$@CKED"
yep...but now we're borrowing to pay the interest on the interest. (insert Donkey Kong photo here)
Well, that's just until ZIRP flattens the remainder of the yield curve. Once that's accomplished, it's all unicorns and rainbows!
we must 'yield' to bernake. he will crush us all. for our own good of course, once we realize that. i love big bernake. if he would post an address - i will send him all my savings so he can send it to jamie and lloyd. i know they will then let it trickle back down to me.
As I have said all along, you want to collapse Greece (and likely a few other European nations)? Invade Iran. It will crush European economies.
Bullish for trireme manufacturers. Slaves make an excellent renewable energy source.
But what about the feeding cost of the "engine"?
Hmm, I have seen the BTU value of the Euro posted on this website, never seen the nutritional value. I'm sure it is tasty, in any case.
Luckely our government will come to the rescue!!
They just launched a 2% extra tax on the value of the car per year....
So a car that cost 30K will cost a extra 600euro in taxes. EXTRA!!
But their logic makes sence.... Let the poluters pay and all....
With these gas prices, i kind of feel like i'm already paying for it but thats just a humble man opinion....
Why not just tax the gasoline. Taxing by usage is more fair than taxing by ownership. A person driving 5k/yr pays the same as a person driving 30k/yr
Speaking of gas prices, the refinery on St. Croix is shutting down;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2835615/posts
They shipped most of their gas to the East coast.
2,000 Cruzans will be out of work.
A couple of small ones are shutting down around here too.
2010 Population of St. Croix = 50,601.
The biggest european refinery closed down last week. Only a small mention in the newspapers.
"Don’t Muck It Up”
It’s getting downright Orwellian out there isn’t it? The Titanic is sinking faster so a greater percentage of survivors are getting seats (participation rate), and the Trump-backed Republicans have no cogent response. Stupidity is growing parabolically, more and more people are willingly ignoring more and more data, to produce the aesthetically pleasing linear outcome. Great, the stated unemployment rate is 8.3%; throw some more fuel on the fire.
When you consider that the vast majority is a cop, collecting benefits from the State, indirectly or directly, to ensure continued conformity, and isolate nonconformance accordingly, you see the true magnitude and shape of the black hole, and, if you look, you can travel right down its history to see how the stack/hash table functions. When the herd finally awakens, it will be consumed by anxiety, from cognitive dissonance. The remedy is to disburse the herd before tyranny threshold, but there is no geography available to that end (for the majority).
Policeman to the world is a stupid policy, with obvious results. It’s like hearing a woman scream when you open your door, and then seeing a man beating on her. If you go over to pull that guy off and expect his wife not to hit you in the back of the head with a hammer, you are the stupid one. Don’t meddle in other people’s marriages. If you have money to throw away to enter the German/Greek sh**-show over in Europe, by all means do so.
Cops are weasels by nature. Good cops understand their role in the empire’s ecology. Do whatever you want with law-breakers, but leave the other non-conformers be, as we increase the age to majority. Yes, Mr. FBI Director, don’t interfere with the Persians; they simply await the conclusion of the financial stage in this war, and they can hurt you beyond your imagination. They eagerly await the Jewish Hypocrites. Homogeneity knows no bounds.
Expect the emperor to open the temple again, but do not enter. Always observe the sh**-show from a convenient watchtower, out of time with the herd. The root implicit multiplexer appears random to the explicit multiplexer only because the latter follows the dying rule of law. Learning comes before knowledge. Language begets equations. The emperor will get his equations, once the noose around his neck becomes so tight that he must relinquish his grip on children.
Raising children is not about instilling fear. Any passive/aggressive moron can be a bully, and be bullied. Ask the Indian what happens to the bully. The brain is a muscle. Thinking is an exercise in consideration. The more you practice, the stronger it gets. Sex is a thinking person’s game. Children learn by example. By age one, they know who the bullies are. By age two, they are practicing. After that, parents are pretty much spectators.
The Persian kids don’t like their derivative leaders either, but they are acutely aware that the melting pot employs a homogeneous catalyst. Containment swings both ways. The empire blows itself up every time. Just give it some rope, the fuse.
China upped the bridge to nowhere ante with cities to nowhere...
Policeman to the world is a stupid policy,
Pax Britannica lasted for 200 years and might have lasted longer if Britain had stayed out of Franco-German problems in 1914. After all, it was Napoleon at the Gates of Moscow in 1812 when the US invaded British Canada.........at least they didn't do it in 1941 when Hitler was at the Gates of Moscow in Operation Typhoon. The US was screaming to be a global player and replace the British Empire but had to share with the USSR once the British Empire collapsed. Clinton built up China when the USSR fell apart to keep the ball rolling.
The numbers are rubbish. A US gallon equals 3.785 litres, so EU 1.76 a litre = $6.65 a US gallon.
Nope, you've forgotten the Euro/USD correction multiplier of 1.30; making your figure 8.66 $/gal. So their figure of around 8.7 is correct.
I am humbled. Sorry.
Humility; a fine and all too rare character trait. +1
Rare in the United States
Rarer (or is it more rare?) in France, where, btw, the women wear no pants.
Rare in most of the west
I wonder: at what point do Americans demand their paychecks in gold and oil?
In 1990ies when Soviet Union was crashing, very often wages were paid in manufactured goods of your company.
Good luck selling microprocessor or Ipad glass frame.
Now that they are getting everyone to quit smoking our fine tobacco won't work either.
Soda and Bacon?
they also planted a lot of gardens. See detroit and other places.
Those are all made in China. Workers here would be paid in code and paperwork. The ones working at grocery stores would be envied
I've asked to be paid in US Mint $50 gold coins. Great way to avoid taxes. It didn't go over very well despite pointing out that the tax savings apply to the employer as well. You can drag a horse to water and drown him, but that won't make him shit skittles and rainbows.
Europe has it better than us. If you consider the cost of the Iraq war for oil, and the rest, we pay way more than $8.75 a gallon. The europeans can even cut their cost by driving less, or having a fuel efficient car (you can actually get one in europe that isn't a hybrid), but here you pay the Iraq oil tax even if you don't drive.
You don't seem to realize that that subsidy has been paid by the whole world, not just US taxpayers.
Remember, the inflation tax is by far the largest tax in existence.
Which isn't to say it won't all come home someday (petrodollar scheme collapse). It's just not here yet.
Better want to rethink that whole Iranian embargo strategy, huh?
Watch the RBA rate meetings early next week. The markets are pricing 25 bps, but I think we get 50bps. The big 4 are paying big $ to refinance their lending needs, and RBA want's part of the rate reduction to be passed on to the Housing market. Those pesky variables exist down under as well. the banks in AU are hurting right now. Japan is looking to get involved in the Aussie R/E market as well. Stay smart people! I got whacked today as well.
I didn't get stopped out of anything though. MARGIN MANAGEMENT!
hey Y/C!
you keep calling bankster casinos "markets" and you think they are "pricing things in"
get well soon, bro! L0L!!!
aaaannnd...good luck, Yen!
Hey Slewie, we all got spanked. You keep on buying the froth. That's what the banksters want. Never felt better. P.S. that 20b stop on eur/chf is BULL SHIT!
One quick comment....
Somebody was kvetching upstream about taxes in Europe on gas/diesel...
One upshoot of the taxes is that crude imports into France/Germany are *flat* since the 1970's....
It's remarkable what can happen when you realize that you don't need a big SUV to realize happiness.../
Last time I was in France was spring of '08... rented a turbodiesel for a countryside road trip... it was pretty neat to be moving along at 140 kmph (about 88 mph) going from Lyon to Avignon and getting ~50 mpg....
Europe will be laughing at the States as peak oil plays out....
So why are roads full of Range Rovers, Mitsubishi Shoguns, BMW X5s, Mercedes M-Class, Audi Q7s, Nissan X-Trails, Porsche Cayenne/VW Toureg, Toyota Landcruisers ? They are everywhere burning diesel and polluting far more than petrol
dbbl.
Why? Stature.
You realize he made a comparison with the States?
Bullish for Global warming.. whatever that means?
I approach my SUVs just like my important body parts.
...I hear MIT has a discovered some kind of economic new order they are calling the Vix Vapor Rub. You rub your children with a VAT and income tax. The kids turn into vapor that you can run your car on. Just one issue, it will only get the car down the road about as far as you can kick a can ...but they are still working on it and they remain hopeful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNvu8K_OnY
Moonshine, entertainment and fuel in one.
Who cares about the price of gasoline when most
of the middle class will not be able to afford a car in a
few short years.
Long Flinstone mobiles.
Long brontosaurus ribs.
Seriously, get a bicycle, or a big road trike for hauling the groceries and kiddies. Just be sure they're helmeted and strapped in if you ride in Seattle, elsewise you'll get dirty looks from the local bike fascists.
Concerning the "Record High Gas Prices" in Europe, just wait until Israel attacks Iran. Out of this likely nightmare, the only joy will be to watch the ECB desperately try to save Angela Merkel's butt as the German population puts the demonstrators in Sintagma Square to shame.
the central bank method of fixing an economy, print. helps the financial industry, the wealthy by asset prices, causes vast majority to get poorer. Huh, this iis why when prices rise we then keep going into a contraction. these idiots don't realize they arre causing the contraction with the printing
When you mention "gas" we don't immediately think of petrol, but true it has increased massively over 3 years even if it is 80% Tax to fund the Welfare System. If you mean what we mean by "gas" you might mention that Russian gas exports to Western Europe have dropped 30% because of the cold........most countries in Europe have underground storage and reserves - BUT not Britain which privatised utilities and "forgot" to make them provide storage facilities, so Britain depends on natural gas from Qatar.......funny location that.......and generates electricity from gas because gas stations are cheap and coal stations aren't. So guess which nation is the most indebted in Europe and has huge energy supply constraints making it interesting to know how an economy can grow out of depression with high energy input costs and a policy of generating replacement capacity via windmills !
Almost sort of kind of like free markets, almost.
Celebration????
In Greece we pay arround 1.60/lt for gas.
So the cost of making a few molotov cocktails is still pretty reasonable, right?
Europe is not in recession. Just a few countries maybe, but overall it's going well. No crisis.
Right, which is why you seem drawn to this site. Perhaps you view zh as science fiction?
You are so right Marie Antoinette, "Europe" is not in recession......there is no "Europe". It is simply that the major countries in Europe are insolvent because their banking systems have rendered them completely exposed to fantastic gambling debts and they keep issuing IOUs to stave off recognition of total and utter default. If you mean "Europe" as a pseudo-political entity - the so-called European Union, that is exposed just as effectively as the Wizard of Oz when Toto tore away the curtain to reveal the Wizard as a fraud. Europe is heading towards a harder version of Fascism than that embodied in the EU which had a socialist welfare coating funded by Magic Money. Now the silver paint is flaking off that false coinit will need to revert to the old ways of physical violence and authoritarian structures to hold onto power
new math?
The cops showed up at my door saying my new neighbors were complaining about a gas smell. I told them my kid spilled a bunch of gas when he was filling the lawn mower. They weren't buying it, but I wouldn't unlock the gate, and they eventually went away.
Now I need to haul my 55 gallon drums up to my remote location.
I pay €1.65 per liter (regular) 60,7% of that is TAX.
But hey, at -14°C we do get some extra molecules per liter ;)