Avoid ripoffs v1: HDMI is not expensive

An HDMI cable (for connecting digital video devices, like HDTVs) does not cost $16 per foot.  It costs $1.82 per foot (shipped).

If you buy an HDMI cable in person, you are paying 8 times too much.

This has been a moldybluenerd announcement.

Update on gas inventory and prices

I blogged recently about $4 per gallon gas and the evidence for it keeps piling up. Robert Rapier investigates the U.S. weekly petroleum report and he's been hopeful that gasoline inventories would turn around in recent weeks to build up for the summer season (and help moderate prices). It hasn't happened.

On a days of supply basis, this week's inventory number is the lowest we have ever seen in the spring, prior to peak summer driving season (emphasis mine).

Summary of the price pressure:
1. It's a supply problem. Refiners have simply not kept pace with gasoline demand as they've been switching to summer gas formulations.
2. It's not an oil shortage, it's a gasoline shortage. Oil stocks keep rising.
3. Demand continues to surge up despite already higher prices.

In other words, get your checkbook ready - prices are going up (price chart courtesy of GasBuddy.com):

One price to rule them all

The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on a case with dramatic implications for consumers everywhere. At stake is a 100-year-old law that makes it illegal for manufacturers and retailers to collude in setting prices (someone should explain that to Apple), and a decision to overturn the law could mean prices everywhere start marching up.

This excellent blog post examines the legal precedent and the potential impact in a society where consumers have been empowered to comparison shop via the internet. The author also looks at the impact of overturning this law, as internet retailers like Newegg.com may no longer be able to undercut brick-and-mortar stores (disclosure: I love shopping at Newegg):

Importantly, this case points a dagger at the heart of the most consumer-friendly aspects of the Internet. The Internet has shifted power to the consumer in two ways. First, it allows consumers to search for and gather information in a cost-effective, efficient manner. Second, it provides a low-cost means of retailing, making it easy for discounters to offer products to the public. This combination squeezes excess profits and inefficiencies out of product prices. Retail price maintenance seeks to short circuit this extremely consumer friendly process. By setting minimum prices, manufacturers can build in excess margins for themselves and for their favored retailers—prices that consumers have no choice but to pay.

This blogger clearly has his side of the issue staked out and it's my only source so far. Can anyone tell me why this would be a good thing?

Update 4:47 - here's some post-argument analysis from SCOTUSblog

Stop whining about gas prices

Courtesy of a blog I've taken up reading, Energista, is an argument about why "hunting around for cheap gas is possibly the dumbest way [to save money]." Analysis originally from Omninerd.

Fuel-efficiency-come-lately

Many economists will use this article as proof that the market can effectively regulate fuel efficiency. Prices are up, and demand for efficiency rises. Unfortunately, the economists will miss a few points:

• For the poorest Americans, a tripling of gas prices (as has nearly happened since 2000) creates a disproportionate burden on poor families, who have little discretionary income to cover them.
  
• It overlooks what we could have done with a sizable gas tax in 2000, driving fuel use down and banking the money for mass transit and car-alternatives to save even more fuel, as well as providing people with transportation options.
  
• If nothing else, we could have used the extra money to help balance the budget.

In other words, I'm delighted to see that people are turned on to more fuel efficient vehicles. It's just too bad we've waited until those high pump prices mean more money for Saudi madrasahs instead of American metrorails.