Why in these straitened times are prices for goods and services seemingly going through the roof ?
We're going to have petrol and diesel at crazyy prices shortly and now the price of a stamp is jumping from 46p to 60p.
A first-class stamp will rise in price from 46p to 60p from 30 April after the regulator lifted some price controls on Royal Mail.
A second-class stamp will go up from 36p to 50p - some 5p below the top price allowed by Ofcom.
The regulator has allowed Royal Mail to set the price of first-class and business mail.
It claimed the future of the universal service was at "severe risk" without relaxing controls.
The 30% price rise in first-class stamps, and 39% rise for second-class, mark record annual increases.
The price of petrol is going up because the price of oil has gone up, no mystery about that.
I know about the price of oil. But there's a world wide recession on and prices are rising all over - cost if living is increasing and the price of everything is going up - is this ALL down to the price of oil ?.
Surely the price of oil needs to be curtailed or controlled more if it's all to do with oil price ?. Is it costing any more to extract the oil, process the crude oil or is it just a case of speculators driving the prices up and blaming regional instability ?.
Quote from: orangeman on March 27, 2012, 12:33:46 PM
I know about the price of oil. But there's a world wide recession on and prices are rising all over - cost if living is increasing and the price of everything is going up - is this ALL down to the price of oil ?.
Surely the price of oil needs to be curtailed or controlled more if it's all to do with oil price ?. Is it costing any more to extract the oil, process the crude oil or is it just a case of speculators driving the prices up and blaming regional instability ?.
Google 'Peak Oil'- Oil companies have bascially said that oil is scarce and harder to extract to drive the price up.
Because the central banks of the world and primarily the US federal reserve are printing money hand over foot to artificially boost insolvent banks, stock markets and heavily indebted economies.
The offshoot of this is that commodities across the board have surged in price. Oil, food, metals, whatever. Gold has gone up some 500% over the past decade for example.
As commodities surge in price so does transport, manufacturing and everything down the chain to the customer.
This is an international phenomenon. Rising food prices in poorer countries can spark revolutions. See the Arab Spring.
The million dollar question is how does this end? We are coming into a very dangerous phase of human history. Currency debasement and war are very real dangers in the coming years.
Aside from economic woes the worlds reserves of cheaply available oil are running out. There is plenty of oil left but at significant cost to get it out. There will be a move towards natural gas which is still in relatively plentiful supply so I would take an interest in natural gas vehicles and the infrastructure to supply them in the coming years.
Quote from: Hashtag on March 27, 2012, 01:03:16 PM
Quote from: orangeman on March 27, 2012, 12:33:46 PM
I know about the price of oil. But there's a world wide recession on and prices are rising all over - cost if living is increasing and the price of everything is going up - is this ALL down to the price of oil ?.
Surely the price of oil needs to be curtailed or controlled more if it's all to do with oil price ?. Is it costing any more to extract the oil, process the crude oil or is it just a case of speculators driving the prices up and blaming regional instability ?.
Google 'Peak Oil'- Oil companies have bascially said that oil is scarce and harder to extract to drive the price up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/02/shell-profits-up-54-percent-oil
Prices are not soaring. Employed a tradesman recently? They're a fraction of the price they were at the peak of the boom. Bought a car? Same deal, you get lot more bang for your buck. Heck, even the prices of most GAA tickets have gone down!
Quote from: deiseach on March 27, 2012, 01:17:04 PM
Prices are not soaring. Employed a tradesman recently? They're a fraction of the price they were at the peak of the boom. Bought a car? Same deal, you get lot more bang for your buck. Heck, even the prices of most GAA tickets have gone down!
I bet you fill your car up at the pumps, don't you?
Quote from: deiseach on March 27, 2012, 01:17:04 PM
Prices are not soaring. Employed a tradesman recently? They're a fraction of the price they were at the peak of the boom. Bought a car? Same deal, you get lot more bang for your buck. Heck, even the prices of most GAA tickets have gone down!
A well known Gaa pub in Castlebar will frequently give you 3 pints for €10 these days.
The price of mail stamps going up is world wide too. Just recently us mail decided that next day delivery for a first class stamp will no longer be guaranteed. Less people are using mail these days and the effect is knocked on. I think I post about 2 items per year. It's all electronic.
Jammie Dodgers £0.49 a pack in B&M Bargins
Sure it's for nothin!!
Puck I bet the Tayto don't taste as good emailed!!
Ahhh Tayto. ???
Don't let them kid ye. There is oil available and for a far lower price but the greedy oil merchants know that we all need it so are putting their prices higher and higher. Greed is the problem and always will be.
Incidently there maybe a oil drivers strike in britain so the army are getting prepared to oversee the duties of the striking drivers. A woman said on tv this morn that the government should do what reagan did when air traffic controllers went on strike in the U.S.; sack them all. Would not put it past the Tories!!!!!
and there is not a world wide recession and even ireland is only dipping its toes into one . the world economy is still growing how ever slightly and the BRIC countries at a rapid rate .
apart from oil, Prices have never been as stable in my lifetime, and the Forces on oil prices are mainly external . esp with the weakened euro . oil is now at an all time high. some one has to pay for Man city's latest signing
some things go up, some go down. I am in the market for a TV in the next 6 months, for obvious reasons. The new TV will be bigger and better than the old one and cheaper than the old one was 10 years ago.
Quote from: theticklemister on March 27, 2012, 02:13:59 PM
Don't let them kid ye. There is oil available and for a far lower price but the greedy oil merchants know that we all need it so are putting their prices higher and higher. Greed is the problem and always will be.
Incidently there maybe a oil drivers strike in britain so the army are getting prepared to oversee the duties of the striking drivers. A woman said on tv this morn that the government should do what reagan did when air traffic controllers went on strike in the U.S.; sack them all. Would not put it past the Tories!!!!!
A barrel of oil can be traded up to 90 times before a drop is used. Since futures trading on oil was allowed it has become prone to the boom and bust cycle, same as everything else. Meanwhile supply & demand have remained largely the same.
BTW oil is not at an all time high. That was 2008.
Whiskeysteve has a better explanation above of why oil prices have become so volatile and it has nothing to do with supply.
oil is at an all time high in euro term which us people in the real economy down south use .
not sure what the english situation is like
Whiskeysteve is right. The UK is trying to deal with its mountain of debt by inflation which reduces the real value of the debt. The Bank of England has pumped hundreds of billions of fresh pounds into the financial markets via its quantitative easing programme and the result has been a fall in the value of sterling compared to other currencies. So for a given value of foreign curency you get more pounds over time. As the UK imports a large proportion of the goods it consumes the price of imported goods expressed in sterling increases.
Stamps - about half to three quarters of the letters you receive won't have the stamps franked so peel them off and reuse by sticking them down with Pritt Stick. Haven't had to buy any for years.
Cancel your mobile phone contracts and go pay as you go or get rid of it altogether...... massive saving every month.
Not sure if you can do this in Ireland but we clubbed together with some family members and purchased a whole side of beef and got a butcher in the family to carve it up.... a lot cheaper and have a freezer full. In laws are also in a co-op where they pay into a farm every year and get veg and meat every month.....
Lots of things you can do to counter the price increases......
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8131
Quote from: thejuice on March 28, 2012, 08:03:00 PM
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8131
There's no chance of an investigation into the alleged fixing of prices. It might well be criminal but there's no chance of this being established.
Banks were too big to fail.
Oil companies can bring the world to a halt. Nobody is going to mess with them or the oil traders / speculators.