"People say it doesn't matter until gas gets to $3 or $4 a gallon," said Peter Beutul, an oil analyst at Cameron Hanover. "But every time it goes higher it takes that much more money out of consumers pockets."
From CNNMoney: $70 oil menaces budding recovery
Two weeks change a lot in the oil markets.
At the end of May CNNMoney.com ran a story asking if $60 oil will kill any economic recovery. "No," most analysts said-consumers could shoulder $60 crude, and analysts didn't see prices going much higher.
Now oil is touching $70 a barrel. Goldman Sachs recently said it sees crude $85 by the years end. With the economy still on life support, oil is drifting dangerously close to being the wet blanket at the recovery's party.
Many say consumer spending - which accounts for over two thirds of he nation's economic activity - takes a big hit when crude hits $100 and gas $3 a gallon. Some say it's more like $125 crude and $4 gas. Others say that during a recession $80 is the breaking point.
But putting a number on it is almost beside the point. The higher it goes, the more it hurts.
We probably need higher oil like a hole in the head right now. Just when things are starting to turn around. Let's hope things chill out an oil prices until we get rolling full steam ahead again.
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