They are at it again

Mikej · January 14, 2011, 12:18:28 PM

Oil price have been going up again even without the demand. This is what happened last time and it put us into a world wide recession. Its time for some questions as to what is going on. I wasn't a big Bill Clinton fan but he did open up the US reserves and put a stop to it during his term. Maybe Obama should do the same thing. It would put a stop to the speculators and leave them holding the bag this time. Plus it would keep the recovery going..

unklian · January 14, 2011, 12:50:36 PM

Oil prices used to be dictated by OPEC.
Now it is controlled by faceless commodity weasels.

jaybee · January 14, 2011, 01:56:22 PM

Faceless commodity weasels...great desciption for the new breed of speculators who have no other interest in the market.

wayne petty · January 15, 2011, 12:13:46 AM

movies to fill one in on this subject..

what's up doc... about the pig bellies market..

trading places... about the orange juice futures market..

there are press releases about the upcoming price of gas .. a retired shell president said it would be over $5 a gallon soon..

i wonder how deep he in invested in the futures market...

i sent a note to the new gov here in california... about the subterfuge of pricing and price fixing...

reminded him to stick a note under the glass on his deck... with a slight change on a really well known phrase... instead of Remember the Alamo... remember ENRON... a few more elected officials have also been sent similar emails...

Uncle Bob · January 15, 2011, 09:37:28 AM

Believing that politicians are the cure rather than the cause is like believing a child molester would make a good baby sitter because he likes kids.

Carnut · January 15, 2011, 01:18:51 PM

Heh, heh, you nailed it again Uncle Bob.

39deluxe · January 16, 2011, 11:47:07 AM

Don't look for any help from our so-called president. He has said several times that we should have $5. gas in this country.

Harry · January 16, 2011, 01:16:23 PM

Quit complaining. As most of you know, Canada is the largest supplier of oil to USA. Then why is it our gas prices are so high?
Right now, it's $1.11 a litre. That's $4.44 a US gallon.
Welcome to the club.

tomslik · January 16, 2011, 02:31:08 PM

Quote from: "Harry"Quit complaining. As most of you know, Canada is the largest supplier of oil to USA. Then why is it our gas prices are so high?
Right now, it's $1.11 a litre. That's $4.44 a US gallon.
Welcome to the club.

how much of that is taxes?

unklian · January 16, 2011, 04:09:24 PM

Quote from: "tomslik"

how much of that is taxes?

The majority.

reborn55 · January 17, 2011, 09:29:01 AM

I keep waiting for Joe Biden to fly over to the Middle East and fix the problem like he campaigned he would do.

jaybee · January 17, 2011, 10:14:06 AM

In this case the Air Transport Association and the American Trucking Association (huh, both ATA) are in favor of the proposed changes in trading rules to limit pure speculation in the market. Neither one of these groups are traditionally wild about regulation...especially the trucking guys.

unklian · January 17, 2011, 05:24:48 PM

Quote from: "Mikej"Oil price have been going up again even without the demand. This is what happened last time and it put us into a world wide recession.

Proof that the "free market" isn't always a good idea;
because some people can't be trusted to do the right thing.

Uncle Bob · January 18, 2011, 11:38:21 AM

I guess it depends on what one believes "free market" really means.

First of all, the premise that energy demand isn't rising on the world market is incorrect. If you start from a faulty premise, you end up with faulty conclusions. How many of us have learned that lesson first hand in trouble shooting a mechanical failure/malfunction? Other economies around the world that we should be competeing with are recovering faster than we are. Part of the problem is we're approximately 1/4 of the world's economy so we're more complex and burdened by our size. But also we are our own worst enemy by the bad decisions we've made over decades.

Which brings me to the second point about what constitutes a "free market". While some regulation is warranted, just imagine what chaos we'd have if we didn't agree as a society to generally observe stop signs/lights, too much or misdirected regulation has unintended consequences. I find it quite ironic (or maybe not) that three of the most heavily regulated industries are the same ones that the public seems to gripe about the most. Energy, healthcare and financial. There are literally tens of thousands of pages of regulations, hundreds, if not thousands of agencies, and probably thousands more bureaucrats, tasked with regulating the entities that participate, yet the general belief is these industries are getting worse. Where's the logic in "if some regulation has failed, we need more of it" when the current problems didn't exist before the regulations were implemented? Yet that is how we've been operating for about the last 75 or so years. Did our nation ascend to greatness at a faster rate before then or have we been slowly stagnating (some would say declining) as the regulatory burden increases incrementally? And why is it that the people in these same heavily regulated private business always seem to be portrayed as the villiains while those responsible for the regulations never, or hardly ever, seem to pay a penalty for their misbehavior? Blame the goat? Just sayin'......

Mikej · January 18, 2011, 04:32:51 PM

Supply is running out?(not in the near future) Higher prices. Opec is Putting out more oil per day. Why? Because the price is to high. They were willing to sell all the oil they could at $140 just to help us out. Wouldn't you? They are speculating $100 now. I think its time to force the speculators hand. Demand has not outpaced the supply. We are being handed a bill of goods. Luckly we're not paying $5 tax per gallon. And I have been know to whine really loud when someone got their hand in my pocket

Bob I follow most laws except speed and jaywalking and coming to complete stops and there might be a few more because I don't knwo them all and they just keep adding to them :oops: