Will offshore drilling lower oil prices?

The real problem with the debate over offshore drilling is that it’s a huge distraction from real solutions within a reasonable period of time.

Focusing on producing more oil is great, but what’s been missing from U.S. energy policy — since the Vice President preemptively dismissed it as “a personal virtue” — is conservation. The quickest way to supply a new barrel of oil to meet growing world demand is to figure out how to not use that barrel.

Said another way: producers don’t control prices, consumers do. If we all cut consumption, prices will fall. It’s happened before, and there’s absolutely no reason it can’t happen again.

Unfortunately, too many consumers in the US are happier to dismiss the demand side of the equation, blame greedy speculators or entertain delusions of oil industry price manipulation. (Never mind that Big Oil only controls only about 10 percent of global production — there are plenty of “documentaries” on YouTube “proving” that a price conspiracy is alive and well.)

Unless and until the public comes to terms with the true causes of the problem, it’s going to be hard to generate political support for real, effective solutions.

We had a subprime mortgage. We quickly refinanced and got out. But we lost a lot of money with fees when we refinanced and our payment went up a lot. Is there any way to recover our losses?
— Mike K., Portland Ore.

There may be, but the odds are not good.

If you can prove that the lender or mortgage broker engaged in predatory lending — which unfortunately, usually comes down to “he said, she said” — you may be able to sue them and recover the money you lost. If the evidence of predatory lending is strong enough, you may be able to negotiate a settlement with the mortgage broker or lender without going to court.

These folks know the law much better than you do, of course, which is why they were very careful to make you sign a disclosure statement saying you understood the ruinous terms of the loan.  Which raises the question: If you really did understand that this loan would end up leaving you broke, why would you sign the papers?

In addition to being hard to prove, recovering money for predatory lending probably also means paying for a lawyer. So unless there’s a lot of money involved, it may not be worth it.

If the money lost won't cover the cost of an attorney, you still may be able to get some help from your state’s attorney general’s office. Not all states are pursuing these cases, but some are. Check out the Web site and see if they have a “mortgage fraud” unit — or call the consumer hotline to find out.

If I have only had a credit card and never a car loan or mortgage and my credit score is in the mid 500's, will getting a car loan and paying it on time increase my score?
— Mitchel

Yes — as long as you can afford the loan. Anything you can do to build a regular history of on-time payment will help. The negative impact of past late payments or defaults will also diminish with time.

But it could take awhile. There’s no quick fix – despite the “credit repair” scams you see on the Internet or in your email box.

For more on how to fix your credit, check out the Web site for Fair Isaac & Company, which invented the FICO score system.

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