Are we headed for a depression?  

Wow $4.55 a gallon. When I was in Seattle a month or so ago it was at $3.95 and now it is at $4.55 a gallon. It feels like there is no end in sight in Canada either. I think our governments are going to have to act fast to save the economies from further disaster.

I feel your pain.

No, seriously, In Malibu the cheapest lowest-grade gas goes for a whooping 4.79. Now I've seen even worse prices down there so this is considered pretty good. Economy is going down badly, but the US is big so it takes an exagerated amount of time to actually see a dramatic difference.

I think the poor will feel it hardest and fastest and nothing will be done until it hurts the rich.

2 TIMES MY HUSBAND AND I HAVE GONE TO SETTLEMENT TABLE TO SIGN PAPERS ON INVESTMENT HOME, THE LOAN WAS SET UP FOR NEG. AMMUUZATION, WE WERE SMART ENOUGH TO WALK AWAY. mOST CONSUMERS ARE AND WERE NOT THAT SMART TO UNDERSTANDING. WE LOST 2500. HUNDRED DOLLARS ON THAT ONE DEAL. WE WALKED AWAY BECAUSE WE KNEW AND UNDERSTOOD - MY SISTER (TOP IN HER CLASS) GOT STUCK IN ONE, BELIEVING HER MORTAGE BROKER WOULD NOT DO THAT TO HER, HER HOUSE WENT TO SHORT SALE. iN RETURN WE BOUGHT ANOTHER HOUSE FOR RETIREMENT, WE HAD 2 HOUSE MAKING EVERY PAYMENT ON TIME. wELL WE SOLD BOTH IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS AND TOOK A 130,000. LOSS, REASON BEING ... OUR WORK HES STALLED. WE WERE SMART TO UNLOAD BECAUSE THEY WOULD HAVE HEADED TO BANKRUPT. I AM DOING ALL I CAN TO HANG ON TO MY CREDIT. WELL THE GOV'T HAS STEPPED IN TO SAVE THE DAY - YEA RIGHT, YOU CAN BELIEVE IF YOU LIKE BUT WHY CAN;T THEY (ONE'S IN CHARGE) GIVE US SOME STRAIGHT ANSWERS. tELL US WHAT THR=EY HAVE IN PLAN AND HOW WILL IT WORK, ITT'S OUR MONEY THEY ARE USING IN CASE THEY FORGOT, WHICH IS TYPICAL FOR THEM. I WOULD LOVE FOR THEM TO COME HERE AND RESCUE ME, I WOULD BE ALOT CHEAPER AND I'M ABLE TO STILL PAY MY BILLS ON TIME -RIGHT NOW!! HELP LIKE ALL THE BIG COMPANIES, IT WONT BE LONG FOR YOU SEE THE USA AS JUST ANOTHER 3RD WORLD COUNTRY. mY DAD HAD THE PLEASURE OF GOING THROUGH THE DEPRESSION, I DON'T WANT TO- I'M BECOMING A FIRST TIME GRANDMA AND I CERTAINLY DO NOT FOR MY DAUGHTER OR GRANDDAUGHTER. SOME BODY UP IN THE BIG HOUSE BETTER DO SOMETHING NOW, DON'T MAKE MORE EXCUSES - I'M SICK OF THEM. MY BANK ACCOUNT IS NOW TO NOTHING, WE WORKED HARD FOR THAT MONEY. WE ARE SICK OF STRIVING TO MAKE ENDS MEET BUT AT THIS RATE IT WON'T TAKE LONG. tHE TOP NOTCH HAVE ALL THE ANSWER BY CALLING PEOPLE RETARDS - IN ANSWER TO YOUR STATEMENT, WE WORK 2-3 TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET AND ONE MY JOB IS A REAL ESTATE AGENT, SO REALLY I AM NO DUMBY. I JUST KNOW THE FACTS. NOW GET THE HOUSE OF DEMOCRATES TO DO SOMETHING. STOP SENDING ALL HELP ACROSS THE OCEAN AND START HELPING YOUR OWN PEOPLE THAT GOT SCREWED BY THEIR FAST, SMOOTH TALKING LENDERS THAT SCREWED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITH IDEA OF WHAT THEY REALLY GOT THEIR SELVES INTO. THAT IS WHERE CONGRESS SHOULD HAVE STARTED YEARS AGO. AS REAL ESTATE AGENT I AM REQUIRED TO TAKE CLASSES ON CERTAIN THINGS BUT EVIDENTALLY THE ETHICS CLASS IS THE BIGGEST ONE - NOT THE MORTGAGE LENDERS. JUST PLEASE DON'T JUDGE THE CONSUMER, THE BLAME SHOULD BE ON THE GOV'T FOR NOT MAKING STRICKER RULES FOR THE LENDER INSTITUTIONS. START AT THE BASE, GET THIS MATTER RESOLVED ASAP. THANK YOU, J,wEAVER

I had heard that the corn crops were going to be great this year and that the farmers were looking at making a profit this year and then the floods came. How horrible for the farmers but it is going to show in the prices of corn products the nation over. If it isn't one thing it is the other it seems. I see a growing popularity in the scooter market.

LOL I wish I would have gone into the scooter business a couple of years ago.

Just about everything has high fructose corn syrup in it as a sweetener. So the corn crop is definitely going to affect prices. Not to mention the part they make into ethanol.

I just got back from the grocery store and I paid $1.29 for a loaf of whole wheat white bread. I don't know where some people are buying bread. A fellow mylotter said she paid $4 for a loaf of bread yesterday. I just wouldn't do it! Most times I buy day old bread and get it cheaper.

Maybe this was the terrorists big plot? Maybe the towers were just their way of making the Americans throw all their money and resources at the war on terror. I had forgotten about all the homes foreclosed on. It seems that North America is in for some hard times. I hadn't heard about them thinking of reinstating the draft down there. How horrible. It looks like it is just in time that that wacko Bush gets out of office. The question is whether it will be in time for Obama to be able to save the day.

Yes, it's sad but true. Many people I know and talk to here at home choose to pretend we are not in the trouble we're in. I choose to keep both eyes wide open. We are in Big Trouble.
Fellow Americans...don't think Bin Laden isn't watching us crumble. He's sitting there rubbing his hands together and smiling at how much we are weakening ourselves. Weak prey is easy prey. Even the rich are feeling the pain of our economy. Businesses are crumbling on a weekly basis. Peple are jobless, homeless, and hungry. We even have terrible health insurance and prescription plans.
Even when we get a new president, it's going to take a long time to repair all this damage, if we don't get attacked first.

I think Osama is rubbing his hands together too, he has succeeded by helping the world crumble. It is sad but true.

I live in a town where we are so short on manpower for menial jobs that we have the option in this town, I forget that it isn't this way in most cities. It is like the 80's all over again with the lack of good jobs in different cities. I know the war is taking up so many resources and it is money that could help so much in your own country to help the poor and working class. But then again I look at the repression that women have to endure under taliban rule and I have to think that the war is doing at least a little for these women and children and even though it is costing lives of innocents and billions of dollars to fight maybe it is worth it just so that girls will have the right to education and the women a right to teach and be equal to en without the Taliban telling them how to act and think. I don't know if war is the way to achieve this but it needs to be achieved.

and Mr.Bush wants to go to war with IRAN before he leaves. how shameful. to him IRAN is more important than the oil prices or food prices. we have to pay for what our stupid politicians mistakes.

I can't stand Bush and his politics, the faster he is gone the better. The thing that scares me is when America goes to war then the rest of the world including us Canadians get involved, poor Iran.

I feel for your husband. We own a cab and the cost of running it is skyrocketing and we are only allowed to increase the meters as the government says so we have to eat a lot of the new costs and it sure adds up. I heard on the news the other day where the U.S. government has raised the maximum on the amount allowed to me charged for milk. There must be a solution to this crisis and I hope we find it before we are in a depression.

They are coming out with some pretty cool electric bikes these days. $6.12 a u.s. a gallon huh, wow, that puts it in perspective! It makes me a little sick actually...

A really nice BC Refed government would have the NG companies putting in NG refueling stations everywhere and then offering zero % interest loans to retrofit BC vehicles for NG fuel. Way cheaper and cleaner than gas/diesel vehicles. Easy to retrofit too.
Then you could persuade people to accept a carbon tax.
And at least there would be a viable alternative in place FIRST. Then the tax would be fair at least.

We have I believe two stations that sell NG now and so it has failed in gaining cab business. Do you remember when the government encouraged all taxis to go propane and gave rebates and kept the price of propane low to encourage its use then when everyone converted they changed their minds and the price of propane doubled? I could see the govt. pulling the same sh*t with NG too. It makes sense for the government to encourage cleaner burning fuel but making sense and the govt. don't go hand in hand...

True enough. But remember, a BC Refed government will give the voters control of government. That will mean that everything government does will be controlled by the citizens who are way smarter than politicians any day of the week.
That means that the people of BC would ultimately control the price of NG in BC. How many BC voters/taxpayers will allow that to change easily after going to the expense of conversion?

I think a lot of people don't think it could happen again. I think it will happen again if the people and governments of the world don't do something starting today. My mom was just a kid during the great depression and she never forgot what it was like to have nothing. I don't want the kids of today to have to live through the same.

With the crop failures in the USA and the raising gas prices I think that it will be years before North America recovers. Then in Europe with diesel reaching $10 a gallon I can see a lot of suffering coming if nothing is done.

That is the major problem, paycheques! I have noticed an increase in my grocery bill too. It is hard to believe that as recently as the 1950's only one person in the family had to work and only one job!

Speaking of fuel, I heard on the radio that here in Canada the gas stations want the government to make a new law for people to prepay for gas as people are filling up and dashing! I have an answer for this problem... how about lowering the gas prices??? Sheesh! As if the government doesn't make enough money already!

In BC that law is already in effect. It is a pain in the as$! Last week a guy was siphoning gas from u-haul trucks into his truck with an electric motor doing the sucking and it caught fire and his truck was destroyed!

Apparently there's this device you can put under your hood now that cuts milage and fuel use in half! A nurse I know from work, her husband installs them for $1000.00. Sure it's pricey but imagine the $$$$$ you would be saving? I think it's worth the buy
As for that guy setting fire to trucks WOW that's crazy!

On the plus side of being working class poor is I don't have to worry about investments!