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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: manalagi who wrote (24770)	6/26/2008 4:10:47 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 149317

Oil and the dollar causing a lot of nervousness. And then we have FedEx and UPS saying that business traffic is down. The stimulus package monies have evaporated and have gone towards fattening the pockets of the oil industry. So much for the Republican economic theories. ==================================== "Oil's latest milestone came as Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said he believes oil prices could rise to between $150 and $170 a barrel this summer. Khelil also said prices will decline later in the year, and aren't likely to reach $200 a barrel." ...read the rest at biz.yahoo.com

To: manalagi who wrote (24770)	6/26/2008 4:15:16 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

Hybrid does not make economic sense since you have to pay about $ 5,000 than regular car. How many years before you reach a breakeven point? And when the car is out of warranty, you have to spend another $ 5,000 to replace the battery plus other problems that are related being a hybrid. Of course when you drive a Prius, you are happy seeing your gas mileage doubles than the regular car. Then, when you try to sell it as a used car, the buyer would want to know if the battery has been replaced. There you go, another reduction in the selling price of a used car. From everything I have read and heard, the battery issue is not as bad a problem as you present: "Since 2001 I have participated in too many Prius internet groups. Therefore I claim to speak with some authority on the subject of HV battery life. If anyone on Earth has yet abandoned an otherwise functional Prius because of facing a $4000 battery replacement, that news has not reached me. A number have been replaced under warranty by Toyota, but they have not said how many. Reports on the internet lead me to guess within the range of 1/1000 to 1/100. The new model Prius had a major battery redesign, and while it has not been flawless, its failure rate appears to be lower. Might they start failing in droves tomorrow or next year? Yes, but it would come as a great surprise to many who follow the subject quite closely. It is certainly true that the retail cost of the battery has not decreased since 2001 as many predicted at the time. A major factor in this is the 4-fold increase in the price of nickel metal since then. Sorry about that; but the demand for stainless steel has grown rapidly and this is a commodity in tight supply. We’ll see how lithium battery prices develop, in the next few years I suppose. Toyota was reported in the media to be offering rebuilt batteries at discount (I linked that article here about last September?), but nothing heard from them about it since. Just a guess, but it may be that they have not had many takers. Several people known to me have replaced their HV batteries with units recovered from crashed salvage Prius. As I have said too many times already, Prius crash out of the fleet faster than they fail. Thus used HV batteries are always available to those who search. Price $400-$1200, up to you to negotiate a warranty etc. But the excess availability actually means that many of them have gone into homebrew electric vehicles. This has become the Prius battery ‘daughter industry’, not pack rebuilding. I believe that battery cell renovation was pioneered by Andy Roberts in Virgina, but he unfortunately died and we lost many of his skills. More recently Bob Wilson in Alabama has stepped up, and I have every reason to expect that he will be a leader in the ‘cottage industry’ of Prius battery renovation. That is, if we ever need it." priusownersgroup.com

To: manalagi who wrote (24770)	6/26/2008 4:51:43 PM
From: koan	Respond to of 149317

Bush does not care anymore. During a meeting with the President of Philippine at the White House, Bush remarked how wonderful it was that he had dinner prepared by a cook from her country. What kind of diplomacy was that? If an ex sailor, you know that that means. koan: Classic bush. bush is a true elitist and the working man was duped into thinking he was their buddy! The reasons for all of this touble is that for 8 years bush and the neo cons did everyhing they could to get rid of the needed rules and regulations. And this is what happens when you do that! John Kenneth Gailbraith wrote the definitive work on the great depression. When the banks started going under they went to congress and aksed for help (like today). Congress said, OK, but you will need to abide by some regulations. These regualtions served us well for half a century. But the new investment banks did not have to obey those rules and some major bank regulation was actually recinded, but I do not remember which one. Also Bush and Cheney did not want a viable treasury secretary looking over their shoulder while they raided the treasury, so they put in O'neil, snow and paulson. all jokes. So in effect we have had no viable economic policy for the last 8 years. And here we are. Many people still do not understand that the neo cons and bush in particular, have done everything in their power to dismantle the new deal.