I see some predictions of $200/barrel for oil, which apparently translates to $7 gas. That seems a little extreme, but we are over $120/barrel now, and $100/barrel was laughed at a few years back. If anything close to this happens, all bets are off for the economy.

People are selling their personal belongings to pay for gas and other expenses now. Sure, some of it is their fault, for overspending when they shouldn't have, but who would guess the gas prices like they are? I know a great idea for stabilizing gas prices, why don't we destabilize the mideast? Oh, wait, that's not working right now because we have incompetents who started the Iraq war.

Luckily, my wife and I can afford gas so far, but the 3 tankfuls between us per week now equal about $7000 a year. Double that, and we will be cutting a lot of things out.

When people run out of things to sell, watch out. As the song says, when you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose. There will be a hard time coming, all because we didn't listen to Jimmy Carter's one right thing, which was invest in alternative energies. Of course, the great god Reagan wiped out that program when he took office.