let s get to that. i want to show you a chart that shows oil prices. this is loast year. you can see the spike iness in past times extending out. it s been pretty stable since the time we ve seen this bill. in the past, in hurricanes or the threat of war, we ve seen these spikes, but why not now? i think it reflects the business in the gulf is not a huge piece of supply and demand. while it might be big to a handful of offshore drilling fimplz, in the scheme of global supply and demand, it s just not very much. we saw in the past huge speculation-driven price spikes due to hurricanes and the threat of terrorism overseas, but now with wall street being reined in, the ability of those speculators to drive prices up for crises like that is a lot more limited. interesting. you also mentioned the price of
we d just tell people what to pay. yeah, we re the only ones that do. i love your insurance! bill? tom? hey! it s an office party! the freedom to name your price. only from progressive. call or click today.
credit. ed, let me start with you. this new wall street reform bill actually helps people access their credit scores more easily. how much does it help consumers and in what other ways? well, the bill is, first of all, a landmark reform because it creates a new consumer bureau. it s the biggest since 1943. but getting access to your credit scores is part of it, but the bureau is a new consumer protection machine that will have the authority to regulate every financial product sold by a bank or non-bank, payday lender or whoever. so it s a very big victory for consumers. it s a big change, but lynette, i m curious your take. is this credit score system broken? i m astounded why i can t figure out why my scores are the way it is. i have three very different scores and it s all done in a black box. a lot of people have made that criticism and said the
agency. and they re judging the w worthiness that s right, they were giving these junk loans. the other is fannie mae and freddie mac who were providing 100 maer 100% taxpayer guarantees on these bills. there is nothing in this bill that says that. let s go through the bill. what are the biggest wins here for, first, consumers? consumers are quite a bit better off, i suspect. the reason for that is over time consumer finance has been a classic race to the bottom business when it comes to practices. as someone who wants to compete with sort of honest and transparent practices, competing against people with shady and non-transparent practices, there is no way to win, and as a result everyone keeps perpetu e perpetuating a carnival of bad acts. what about for financial firms? it s a bit of a mixed bag.
great. okay, pickles! do your thing. [ bell rings ] that s amazing! i trained him myself. i meant the. okay. same coverage, more savings. now, that s progressive. call or click today. this is not a good number if you re trying to get a loan or credit card, but those who have a number of 500 or less, guess what? there is change under way. the financial reform bill will allow people to at least see their score. here is the author of great