Originally Posted by dom

The last thing we want is for oil to crash. Yes, it may sound good for the consumer, but it is not. It would put our economy into even more free fall. The reason; most US investment companies have thrown the money (the money that WE give them each month out of our paycheck) into oil, oil companies, oil research and development companies, oil equipment manufactures, etc. The drop in the dollar has caused investment companies to invest in commodities, which are more tangible than the US dollar right now. The US dollar is based on our debt, our GDP, and retail numbers. All of these are weak. If oil drops, retail numbers may come up, but our GDP and debt would remain stagnate if not grow. If oil were to bust, so would a number of investments, our investments. This would cause massive sell offs in what T.Rowe Price, Vanguard, TIAA CREF, etc. are invested in. This would cause a massive loss to 401K, IRA, and Mutual Fund accounts to name a few. That means a loss in money to OUR ACCOUNTS. Instead of a crash, we need to hope for a slow draw down in the price of oil. That will allow investment firms to forecast the change, which would then allow them to re-distribute investments wisely. Be careful what you wish for, an oil bust is not a good thing to have happen overnight.