On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 12:39 AM, Jeffrey Watts [email protected]wrote:
Fuel costs are DIRECTLY affected by the value of the US dollar. The US dollar has been plummeting in recent years due to the increasing debt load of the US government and the subsequent devaluation of US Treasury bonds. The tax breaks dramatically increased that debt load, and therefore contribute to the devaluation of the US dollar.
I should have added that the poor financial footing the government is on affects perception of the value of the US dollar on exchange markets. This perception is key, and much like a corporation might have its credit rating devalued due to poor financial performance or management, our dollar isn't perceived to be as valuable of a currency to own recently. This scares off investment in Treasury bonds, and so forth.
Jeffrey.