Whatever your politics, it’s hard not to feel inspired by the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Look to Libya however, and – for now at least – the feeling is quite different.

Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi this week reasserted his intention to keep hold of power, laughing at the very prospect of leaving his ‘homeland’. But the same can’t be said for swathes of the Libyan population who have been attempting to flee the country since the revolt began.

But as Libyan border crossings reach breaking point, the economic echoes of this crisis are also reverberating out of the North-African country and into wallets around the world.

One major way the Libyan revolt, as well as the wider ongoing crisis in the Middle East, can impact on your finances is through the price of oil.

Talk about oil markets is littered with complex, scary sounding jargon; so I’m going to try to simplify the matter. First I’ll consider what is causing this price rise, before looking at exactly how oil rises can affect you and what you can do to mitigate the impact.

http://www.lovemoney.com/news/the-economy-politics-and-your-job/politics-and-finance/11296/how-colonel-gaddafi-could-cost-you-money

Ah shucks... an article from a "farting 10 dollar bills" (Bertha in Two and a Half Men) website... Got to go and wash the keyboard again...

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/caricaturing-qaddafi/?hp

The NRMA is predicting petrol prices could soon rise above $2 a litre, based on research it has commissioned.

For people who spend a lot of time behind the wheel, petrol prices of $2 a litre could translate to an additional $2,000 or more a year.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury says the price concerns stem from the worrying global conditions.

"The unrest in the Middle East, the strength of the Australian dollar, and also the US economy and the fact that it's still not where we expected it to be today - those three factors combined will affect petrol prices in Australia," he said.

"Our concern is that it will affect it in the negative, and we are concerned that if we're paying $1.50 today and those factors haven't kicked in, then what will we be paying in any short period of time?"

On the face of it, it seems a strong Australian dollar would lead to less expensive petrol, but Mr Khoury says the concern is that the dollar will come down.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/31/3178981.htm?section=justin

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buy a bicycle... see toon at top...

Industrialized nations including Germany banded together Thursday to release portions of their emergency oil reserves for just the third time ever, following disturbances to global supply in the wake of the Libyan conflict.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would inject 60 million barrels of government-held supplies into the global market, increasing world supply by some 2.5 percent for the next month.

Oil prices tumbled more than 6 percent on the back of the news - the lowest value since February, before civil war halted Libya's supplies. French Economics Minister Eric Besson said the price drop should be passed immediately on to consumers at the petrol pumps.

The IEA added that the action would get oil quickly to market. The body said it would decide on further releases in a month's time.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, was still trying to make good on its pledge to increase output.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15185614,00.html

see toon at top...