Prepare for a double dip in the recession!

The recession we're in was not caused by only one factor. There are at least two major factors that brought on the recession: high oil prices and the interest rates increasing on adjustable rate mortgages. Well prepare for a bumpy ride because the oil prices have been escalating again.

Speculators, gamblers, whatever you call them, they buy and sell in the stock market based on hunches, rumors, and reading chicken entrails. This time they're going on the unsupportable optimism of our federal government when they give unemployment figures that don't include those who have fallen off the rolls because there are no jobs left for them to look for. While people are still struggling to put food on the table and keep their homes from being foreclosed on, the prices of oil and gasoline have been driven higher over the past month than any other time since they plunged from record highs in 2008.

Crude oil is running $79-$82 a barrel while gasoline is running $2.275 a gallon. That is wholesale. Count on the price of gasoline topping $3 a gallon very soon unless the market corrects itself. The $1.50 prices we saw a little over a year ago seem a far distant memory. The correct market price for oil, taking into consideration world demand, is closer to $60-$65 a barrel while the correct market price for oil is closer to $1.70 a gallon, giving an average retail price at the pump of $2 a gallon for regular.

The prices are not being driven by actual demand, but by speculation that more people may be working. That is not the case though.

If these prices continue to rise prematurely, we will see a second dip in this recession that may drive it into a full blown recession.

In addition to the decrease in actual fuel used because of less people driving to work, many people also are driving more fuel efficient cars. The market does not justify rising prices at this time. Even when the market does recover, it will take at least two years before it has stabilized enough to be able to compensate for an increase in oil prices.

Those who are driving the price higher will soon find themselves falling on their own swords as prices plunge as the economy takes its next major dip.