Except that they get paid in pounds not dollars, so if a guy is making the same salary he was when the pound was a buck, he's doubled his pay in dollars.

A friend of mine talked with a real estate agent in the mountain region of New Hampshire last week, he said he's sold more vacation homes to British people this year than to Americans, apparently the British can hardly believe how cheap real estate has become in the US.

The pound and the Euro have doubled in the last 10 years.
So as oil went from $20/barrel to $114/barrel, for europe it went from 25 Euros to 57 Euros. So yeah, they pay more, but it doesn't seem as bad.
Add to that the high gas taxes that almost every petroleum importing nation charges, and gasoline hasn't even doubled for the european consumer.

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"[i] was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, March 13, 2007

" I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign."
-- Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Gonzales, testifying under oath, March 29, 2007

The weak dollar does contribute somewhat to the price of oil but not as much as the OP would have us believe. Sure the dollar is weak today but is it worth 5 times less than it was 15 years ago? I think not. Not to oversimply it too much but one of the major driving forces is speculation among commodity traders. They are driving the prices higher in anticipation of future supply and demand. (it's not based on last years numbers Americano) Old news doesn't drive commodity prices. Perception is reality in those markets. Liken it to the real estate speculation in California that has proven to be a disaster for homeowners and lenders. Is there an end in site? Probably but who knows when and how much worse it will get before the bottom falls out.

But these high oil prices only make alternatives more economically viable. You liberals should be rejoicing at Bush's feet (since you blame him for this) for making it possible for the new "high tech energy" jobs to become a reality.

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American by birth.
Conservative by the grace of God.

To say nothing regarding average MPG in European and US standard vehicles. Even US soccer moms are moving away from giant SUVs as US gas approaches $4/gallon. A friend ran a fairly new Ford Explorer in the local and Portland newspapers at below wholesale price and received zero calls. The Ford dealer, whom he knows on a personal basis, had offered him $4k below wholesale on trade against an almost new Toyo mini-van, telling him he has zero retail demand for big, used SUVs and that's what he could get at the auction. He's about ready to bite the bullet and let the dealer auction it before its value sinks even lower.

A fair point.

Did see my first SMART on the road in the US yesterday. May be a new trend?

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"Take me back to the way life's never been."

Dream on. Oil futures are a matter of months and there's currently plenty of supply.

If they could buy American gas with British pounds this would make sense. Otherwise it is completely irrelevant. When was the Pound equal to a buck?

1993 1P = $1.50
2008 1P = $1.99

That's a 33% increase...not exactly doubled huh?

Historic Exchange Rates

Suckers. Don't they know we are in a declining market here?

Have you checked real estate prices in London? When I moved from Chicago back to the land of cotton I couldn't believe how much house I could buy either. It's all relative. And I remember when the Japanese were buying up an "on sale" America also. How'd that work out for them?

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American by birth.
Conservative by the grace of God.

Ya think?

Crude Oil Futures Prices - NYMEX

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American by birth.
Conservative by the grace of God.

Really? I don't know about Amsterdam, but as far as driving habits, London seems very similar to a U.S. city.

I figure they're lamenting the gas hikes about as much as we are.

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Screw Change!! Let's have a Seamless Transition of Power and Policy.. John McSame in 2008!

Yeah, they may get paid in Euros or pounds, but if a guy made $80,000 dollars with his job in the U.S. and then he moved to London to get a job at the same level, he probably wouldn't make 80,000 pounds..... probably more like 40-50K pounds.

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Screw Change!! Let's have a Seamless Transition of Power and Policy.. John McSame in 2008!

Oh, there are many drivers, but most Londoners use mass transit.

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"Take me back to the way life's never been."

10 years ago the pound was $1.09, the euro was around .90 up from .79 a year earlier.

Actually vacation homes in the White mountains have held their value pretty well, there aren't a lot of for sale signs, and with foreign demand, the dollar prices are fairly steady, although to the foreigners everything is a lot cheaper than they remember from their last trip.

__________________
"[i] was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, March 13, 2007

" I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign."
-- Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Gonzales, testifying under oath, March 29, 2007

True..... and those that do drive, by and large, made the jump to VERY fuel efficient cars over a decade ago. Not many pickups and SUV's over there.

They are used to playing up the fuel economy of a car like we are used to playing up horsepower.... Totally different mentalities, but we are beginning to follow their example.

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Screw Change!! Let's have a Seamless Transition of Power and Policy.. John McSame in 2008!

Either way, my stocks are up; it's all good...

I agree. I'm currently working with two guys from France and they can't believe how big the vehicles and engine sizes are over here. They said that the average engine size over there is 1.4 liters (not sure how that translates to US measurements) and most are smaller cars. Here we have a ton of SUVs and regular trucks thanks to all the mining in the area.

They also mentioned that instead of increasing the engine size over there, they are doing exactly what you said, working on the efficiency of their engines.

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Two-thirds of the world's lawyers practice in the US

I've been around since "Buy American" meant "Made in the USA".

We are already starting to diverge away from our old way of thinking in America, though.

My father used to be a big muscle car aficionado, but just this year, he bought a Prius....... For me, more than anything else, that exemplifies a realization that both we and our cars are going to need to be more practical in the coming years. Habits die hard though, so it will take a while before the landscape really changes on a wholesale level. But the trend is being forced on us more than anything else... the era of negligible gas prices is in the past.

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Screw Change!! Let's have a Seamless Transition of Power and Policy.. John McSame in 2008!