[wdvltalk-social] A riddle

[joseph harris]

From: "Joe Fawcett"
From: "joseph harris"
> Hey, this is a time for sympathy.   No really.    I mean would
> you like it?    Ahaha...   OOps!
>
> ;-)    And remember - to almost be serious - that it bodes 
> badly
> for the international economy.     Oh woe, woe, woe...
>
> Cassandra Joe
>
>
It certainly is bad in many ways but what I don't understand is 
why the
price of petrol has risen to over £1.00 per litre in England? 
Barrels of oil
are quoted in dollars so why hasn't the price beeen offset by the 
weak
dollar?


Joe
http://joe.fawcett.name

Ah!   You spotted that too  ;-).    I think that the price has 
risen so much that the increases may actually reflect the weak $ 
too.    Of course our Gordon has his greedy mitts on our petrol 
tanks too, so with a 1p [2.4old d for those who care about real 
money] on the price of petrol Gordon's take is another 4p or 5p. 
And I didn't follow if he was imposing the new tax hike on that 
or not either.

[all from memory...]   so if the barrel price has risen from 
around $20 to around $100 and the $ has weakened by 50% in two 
years we are still looking at a possible doubling from the price 
of around 74p at the pump.   [what's that in the real world 
measure of gallons - and that's the UK gallon, not the pale US 
imitation of 16 ounces to the pint!]

Now that I'm thinking about it more up to a couple of years ago 
the exchange was moving round $1.50 to the pound, so on a longer 
term basis the change is only about 30% lower.

To throw another spanner in the works  ;-)...    I had read that 
the reason for invading Iraq was because he was about to do a 
deal with the EU to sell his oil in Euros.   I am not sure if all 
oil is still sold in $.    If you were selling it today what 
would you choose  ??

And there is another implication for our economies.   It both 
gives an international currency strength and status to be the 
unit of measure for resources and it costs a bit to maintain 
that.   If there is loss or threat of loss of such an important 
role the main exchange currency will change [just as the $ took 
over from the Pound Sterling, now ignominiously written as GBP] 
and the loser will be rocky on the 'free' exhanges.

With such an integrated world economy it needs one excahnge 
currency so if a changeover is happening that will cause a wee 
bitty turmoil, too.

Want to buy some Yuan?

Joseph