One Clinton Replacing Another in the Senate?

Well, I learned something new today.  I was reading an article on CNN and saw a caption on the sidebar that Bill Clinton was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace his wife in the Senate. Very interesting and learned something new to boot.

If Bill is selected to take his wife's seat in congress he would be the third president in the history of our country to do so.   John Quincy Adams was the first ex-president to serve in the House of Representives.  Andrew Johnson was elected to the Senate 7 years after being acquitted of all impeachment charges.  

I don't remember this ever being mentioned in school when I took american history - does anyone else remember this?

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Interesting article in the NY Times, which is primarily the posting of an email from an excutive in the banking industry, stating that the mortgage crisis is only the tip of the iceberg.  That what the really big problem will be this coming spring is people defaulting on their credit card debt.

I can see how this will be a tremendous problem and no one side is really to blame in all of this.  Yes, the banks and other companies should not be sending out credit card applications left and right, but if they didn't then I would have much leftover to open after Mrs. B sorts the mail.  Seriously, the people receiving all of the offers for credit cards don't have to get the cards.  

Consumers using credit cards need to use credit wisely.  Don't run up large balances that can't be paid off by the next payment due date.  Or have a plan in place on how long it will take to repay the balance off if it is absolutely necessary to buy whatever it is that is needed.

In the comments posted at the end of the article was one that I thought was pretty good:

"Just because someone gives you a gun, doesn’t mean you aren’t responsible when you shoot somebody–even if that someone is yourself."  K.

Just because we receive these offers in the mail, it doesn't mean that we have to accept the cards or use them.  We can't put all of the blame on the banks and other companies encouraging us to use these cards, we have to take some responsibility as well.  After all, we only have ourselves to blame if we don't use credit wisely.  

Let's hope that this iceberg doesn't come to pass this next spring as this banking executive is predicting.  I for one, have seen our investments decline in value way too much already.  

If the president elect does get an economic stimulus package that will include checks to all taxpayers, let's hope that they include a requirement that all credit card debt has to be paid off before the money can be used for anything else.  Not sure how they would accomplish this, but in my opinion, it would certainly go along way toward getting us out of this crisis better than anything else that's been suggested so far. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Why is the price of diesel fuel a $1 per gallon more expensive than regular gas?

Well, gas prices are certainly down significantly from where they were only a few short weeks ago, but I have been puzzled for a while why diesel prices continue to be fairly high.

Today Mrs. B took me to the doctor (thank you Mrs. B) and then we ran an errand for the Durham Symphony while we were in the area. While we were stopped at an intersection I noticed that regular, unleaded gasoline was $1.899 per gallon and diesel was at $2.899 per gallon - a $1 per gallon difference. Hmm, maybe since I'm feeling like such an invalid I could look into this today while I'm sitting around doing nothing.

So what I found out so far is that the price of oil makes up approximately 64% of the price as can be seen in the graphic above. Not surprising as this is what you would expect since diesel is refined from oil.

What I didn't know was that there are only a certain number of gallons of diesel that can be made from one barrel of oil. According to this government website a barrel produces a range of products as is shown in this graphic:


Other searches indicate that each barrel contains 42 gallons of crude oil and the standard refraction process produces approximately 19 gallons of gasoline and 10 gallons of diesel and heating oil combined. And, according to this article in the NY Times, that this proportion can be tweaked slightly using the current process to produce slightly more diesel, but not a significant amount.




It seems that while demand for gasoline has decreased and depressed the price of oil and refined refined gasoline demand for diesel has not decreased in the US as well as in Europe. From what I've read Europeans drive more diesel cars because of the fuel efficiency and overall consume more diesel than gasoline.

What seems to be happening is that the refineries in Europe are producing diesel for consumption in their markets and shipping the excess gasoline to the US. The US refineries, because overall demand for gasoline is down, have lowered their production of gasoline to keep from building a huge inventory of gasoline, hence lower production of diesel that is keeping the price of diesel higher than regular gasoline.

With gas a down to price levels not seen since 2002/2003, demand not likely to increase any time soon, and the importing of gasoline from Europe, the price of diesel fuel is likely to remain at or near this level. Seems to me that the biofuel industry in this country has a window of opportunity to create a market for itself that shouldn't be missed.

By the way, just in case you were wondering, according to the government article quoted earlier, the federal excise tax on one gallon of diesel is $0.24.4 cents and state taxes add an additional $0.20 cents per gallon on average.

Bam!

That's how it came on yesterday morning. I was standing in Ronnie's (the partner I work for ) office and just barely started to turn my upper torso and BAM!


I felt a spasm in the left side of my back that made me gasp. Ronnie looked at me like I was crazy and I just stood there for a couple of minutes until I could talk. The initial pain subsided, but all day long I kept feeling tremors and more tightening of my muscles.


Mrs. B was very compassionate and helpful when I got home last night with help getting a heating pad on the right spot. Although I probably should be using ice instead since I think this is caused by inflammation of the nerves and surrounding muscle tissue. I'll have to look that up later.

Well, anyhow, the alarm goes off this morning and I can barely move so it is off to the doctor's office to see what can be done.

Strange isn't how you can feel absolutely fine one moment and the next you are left gasping for breath because of the pain. And the really strange part of all of this is that I was just doing normal honey do stuff around the house this weekend, playing with the kittens, walking the dog, etc. Nothing strenuous. I guess you just never know when something like this is going to happen.