I was watching the Bloomberg report this morning and they had a story about how an oil pipe line in Iraq was blown up by a bomb planted underneath it. And I quote "this will likely have a strong effect on the supply of oil...".

Given the history of our gas price increases (not enough oil, raise prices. Too much oil, raise prices. Not enough factories, raise prices. SPECULATION of supply issues, raise prices), I would expect that we are probably going to see another nice spike in fuel prices.

I am so ******. Every time I say to myself, "alright, just suck it up and keep the truck" after going through selling scenarios... something like this happens. I am already paying $150 - $200 more per month for fuel than I was two years ago. If we are going to hit $5.00 by summer (which is expected), I will be shelling out about $50 - $60 more! Yikes!

Putting on my paranoia hat... what if this oil problem has become another way for Osama Bin Laden to attack our economy? He sees us struggling with oil and decides that he might want to rub some salt in the wound.

I know what your talking about. What is the fraction of oil that will be offline now in Iraq? (Maybe .05%) But the price of oil will go up like it's 25% of the world oil is offline. It's like saying 3 cows were found dead so beef in america is going to double........

The price of oil is mostly do do with inflation and people jumping ship from dollar-based investments to oil.
When the govt. spends into large debt and then prints money to cover the shortfall rather than to raise it via taxes, inflation occurs. Everything the federal reserve does only feeds inflation. Bailing out investors that got too greedy and lowering the interest rates only reinforces poor fiscal planning.
If you want something done about this, you have to write to your representatives. Theyre the ones that are misbehaving when it comes to the budget.
If you have doubts about the amount of inflation thats occurred, look at the price of gold from '00 to '08. you will be appalled. Your salary is effectively worth about 50% less of what it was.
Whats allowed this to happen is our fiat currency.. its value is not solidly based on anything. It is open to manipulation. Rather like a hidden tax.. everything you buy is going up in price with this new 'tax'