[Fish2006]

Remember all that Chinese demand? Chinese stock market is down like 70% this year. Before everyone was extrapolating 12% GDP growth for years on end. Now that it is more like 8%, different deal.

Also - people are not fooled this time - after the past 3 years, I think people are expecting things to go back up. Thus, many are not trading in the small cars for bigger ones now that oil is relatively cheap.

That said, the cheaper oil is working like a shadow stimulus plan on the economy, one we desperately need. If a typical family burns through 50 gallons of gas per week, it is around $100 per month per family of stimulus... basically over a year the equivalent of doing one of those tax rebate checks for $1000.

I hope the push towards putting in Wind and moving towards CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) operated cars does not stop. IF we are going to spend $700B recapitalizing banks, I see no reason why we could not spend $700B split between investing in new tech startups, and investing in companies that have promising patents in solar and wind tech so that those ideas get developed and give us cheap alternatives to oil. I would love nothing more than to simply make Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia functionally irrelevant not just now, but going forward.