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You really have to keep checking…fares just dropped from NYC and Chicago about $380 r/t with one stop. Fares tend to change week to week…www.kayak.com
Glad I booked mine 4 weeks ago!
I can’t imagine anyone can be surprised by this development. Today, oil reached a new high by jumping nearly $9 a barrel to over $136. Unprecedented..never happened before. Some government people at first suspected speculators might be to blame but it turns out that fundamentals are the cause. There is just less oil to be had and a whole lot of Chinese who are chomping at the bits to get behind the wheels of all those cars the Chinese factories are churning out.
I may have to trade my Toyota FJ cruiser in for a Daihatsu Bego when I move to CR…
Keep watching Spirit Airlines and sign up for their e-mails. A couple of days ago they were offering 100% off their flights from Fort Lauderdale to San Jose. Thats right 100% off, but these offers are only on for a couple of days or so.
A few of my investment clients (very happy there are too) have had money invested in the Quantum Fund (George Soros) for many years and he knows more about trading than all of us combined…
You might find his most recent oil comments of interest… ‘Oil prices: George Soros warns that speculators could trigger stock market crash’ which you can read at [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/03/commodities ]
Plus ‘Soros Tells Congress To Pop An Oil Bubble’ at [ http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/06/03/soros-energy-congress-biz-beltway-cx_jz_0603soros.html ] where George Soros suggested that with a $120 barrel of oil, only about $40 was the result of supply and demand, $40 from the effects of OPEC’s cartel and $40 from pure speculation.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comSpirit Airlines has some decent deals but good luck if you need to call them. I tried calling them to change an airfare and I got a fast busy when I selected new reservations or to change a reservation. They still have no replied to my email messages
Scott,
I am an admirer of Mr. Soros not only for his views on the world economy but his politics as well. However,there are several major opinions as to what is causing the rise in oil prices. The expert opinions I tend to follow on this matter believe most of the rise in price is based on fundamentals and not speculation, which may represent only about 10% of the recent rise.Speculators usually invest based on beliefs about future prices. In the case of oil, nobody is disputing that there is a dwindling supply and a growing demand. The worst case scenario may have the current price exaggerated by 20% to 40%, but if this is NOT a bubble, and is a legitimate reflection of true pricing, that would also be cause for a stock market crash. Witness Friday’s ride down by nearly 400 points on the Dow.
Government solutions are always reactive and never in time. It does no good to blame speculators now even if they are to blame since the horses have already left the barn. If oil retreats, it won’t be back to $80 a barrel.
The big question now is, since there are no solutions, what then are the consequences of oil and food becoming quickly priced to painful and unsustainable levels?
Just some facts;
Forgive me for being rude ‘sprite’ but you don’t honestly believe that the U.S. energy secretary knows anything energy, trading and the real world do you?
If he did, would he be the U.S. energy secretary?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comScott I think your breakdown on why oil is $138 a barrel is on the money. Bodman does have an impressive education, but his background is primarily in chemical engineering I believe he ran a department at MIT. At some point he switched to finance and headed up Fidelity investments. By the time he started working for the Bush administration he already had made his “mark” in the world so to speak.
Scott, I don’t mean to be rude either, but when reflecting upon the qualifications of Bush’s appointees, we must take into consideration the qualifications of “The Appointer” and his motivations. Remember, this is the guy who gave us the FEMA director whose background was in running a horse registry and whose performance was largely responsible for the response to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.
Just because Bush’s Secretary of Energy sits at the desk doesn’t mean that he knows the differnce between light crude and 3in1 Oil.
So, if airline fares have doubled, what is everyone’s best guess as to what will happen to Costa Rican tourism and real estate? There will come a point where people will just stop traveling.
My husband painted a more dire scenario last night when we were talking about how oil jumped $10 a barrel just on that statment that was made about how Isreal would go to war with Iran. It’s the speculators who have caused this mess, but it is only going to get worse unless something drastic is done — like declaring a moratorium on speculation and freezing the price of oil which is only worth $60 a barrel on the market! There are reports out now about how certain military factions are being trained for martial law. How bad does it have to get before they declare that? Would they then close the borders? Could we who live in both Costa Rica and someplace else even be able to GET to Costa Rica, assuming we COULD afford the airfare? How much higher does gas have to go before there is really serious implications and restrictions? The airlines are cutting flights and routes every single day. There will soon be 100 cities that will no longer have air service at all. Will there be waiting lists to get on a flight? Airfares that were in the $200 range are now in the $700 range. Who can afford those increases? Since I’ve been back in Colorado gas has steadily been going up by $.02 a gallon PER day! But it’s the food prices that are out of sight because every single thing we eat up here in the mountains has to be trucked in, so almost across the board the cost of food here has gone up 25%! Ain’t no way I’m paying $6.00 a pound for butter and $2.00 a piece for an avocado! And this is just the beginning, and neither Ombama nor McCain are likely to fix this mess because it is too far gone.
You’ve hit the nail on the head Maravilla
What’s the point in investing in an ‘escape’ or ‘refuge’ in Costa Rica if you can’t actually get there? Either because of outrageous fuel costs or where the US implements immigration controls for ‘your protection.’
People forget that fuel costs affect everything and not just just filling up your tank. Oil is in your tank yes but it’s also in fertilizers, it’s in herbicides, in packaging and we must remember that Israel’s other big concern – not only oil – but Israel is desperate for water too…
And there is a much bigger, deadlier and quieter ‘war’ going on which is the one the poor are fighting because of the lack of and speculation in 1: Oil, 2: Food and 3: Water.
But couldn’t all of this be just another cog in the wheel of Kissinger’s depopulation plan?
If Israel does attack Iran – and Israel is certainly very vocal about that – then it’s going to get very, very ugly.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI saw a really scary news clip the other day where they were showing what the typical American family eats — 90% of their diet consisted of packaged, processed and fast food. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they were then talking about how much these food items were going to increase and how that poor family was stretched to the max because of it’s bad choices on the food pyramid, and how those families would probably have to cut out eating junk food and processed food and switch to a more natural grain-based and vegetable-based diet. CUT TO a family in Africa, whose diet already consists mostly of grains and vegetables — WHAT ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO CUT OUT??? They don’t have a choice. They are already eating what most people should be eating, and if the costs for those grains become unafforable, THEY STARVE TO DEATH!! HELLLOOOO? Anybody out there? People think I’m a little over the top because my cupboards — both here and in Costa Rica — are STOCKED with as much rice, beans, pasta, and other grains as they can hold. When I’m asked why I do this, I’ve always joked “to hedge against the coming famine.” It used to get a laugh. Last night my husband asked me how long we could go with what’s in our cupboards and would I please make sure we have more rice, beans, and grains stocked somewhere. When I was in Costa Rica and heard that Wal-Mart was rationing rice, I bought 30 pounds of it and put it away. Now I wish I’d bought MORE! LOL
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