Oil prices dropped on the commodity market over $10. A sure sign of profit taking by speculators fearful of the bubble bursting. I invested $20 yesterday in the market. The gas at the pump was .05% more expensive this morning. My wife called from Chai-nat to complain about the pump prices.
"Over 40 baht a liter."
I thank the stars we didn't buy a Honda CRV SUV.
Some people are not so lucky and cars have been disappearing from the streets of Bangkok. My friend, Khim, says, "For the first time since I start driving chauffeur we not have lot dtit."
Bangkok without its gridlock is like Paris without insulting waiters.
"And no mon-pit."
No pollution in Bangkok is like New York with snotty cabdrivers.
No traffic means Bangkokians can not rely on traffic delays for an excuse for lateness. People are driving less or not at all and one wonders whetehr we are coming to the end of car era.
100 baht gas would nail the coffin shut and the world can breathe easy for the first time since the realization that cars might be killing the planet, of course not everyone will abandon the car, but there will be a change in the near-future because a 3000 pound car to transport a 180 pound human being isn't the most efficient means of transport.
But economy was never the idea behind the car.
Profit for the auto industry is shrinking faster than a cheap shirt in a dryer. SUVs gave them 30% profit. Smaller cars less, but like my boss Manny says, "Rule #1 is nimmt geld and it doesn't matter how much."
Maybe the car won't go away but you can kiss the SUV good-bye at $150/gallon.
In opposition to Newton's law of gravity, not everything that goes up comes down and the oil speculators will make sure of that.
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