Happy Leap Year In Peak Oil Times

Happy Leap Day 2008.

Extraordinary week for oil prices - shattering old records and gushing up to $103 / barrel, leaping to settle at $101.71 on this Friday. The U.S. money tanks (real consumer dollars and the government's 'reserve') are sliding towards empty as the dollar plummets. TV's talking heads and web crawling financial bloggers insist the oil bubble will burst "if" we have a recession. OPEC considers a production cut, with an eye on the 'possible' economic downtown in the U.S., and the oil leaders are said to be miffed at the seemingly stable new highs.

Funny thing: the president "hadn't heard" that gas would go to $4 a gallon across much of the country by spring, as the Department of Energy is sounding that exact warning bell. Guess that headline leaped out right over his head.

So taking all of this into account, as the mortage mess leaps into an ever-growing credit crunch, what did you do with your paycheck today on this last Friday of the month? Where are you headed this weekend?

I withdrew some more cash to stuff under my mattress. I live in a depressed area where foreclosures are wiping out entire neighborhoods and our regional and local banks reported major losses and lowered expectations last quarter. Am I overly cautious? Crazy? Maybe. But many billionaires, Warren included, will tell the average person to always plan for the worst, because sometimes hoping for the best just isn't enough.

Today's a day that only happens once every four years. That's a good thing. In fact, now that February is over, that's a good thing too. Let's hope next month shows us some good news for regular folks like you and me... at the very least a bump back into 401(k) accounts.