Oil prices are a complete fucking joke, its based on nothing but speculation, lets see how long the economy can handle $100+......there is no such thing as supply and demand with oil prices anymore. Oil is overvalued, $30-$40 is where it should be trading at. Also Trillions in stimulus and plenty of QE's have pushed oil prices higher. Thank Bubble ben bernanke!!!!
Was it just coincidence that the initial invasion operated under the acronym OIL? Wiki says "later renamed", but as I recall, it was renamed almost immediately, a bit of an "oops" moment for those in charge. "At 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20, 2003 (9:34 p.m., March 19 EST) the military invasion of Iraq began. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by U.S. army General Tommy Franks, began under the codename "Operation Iraqi Liberation", later renamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom"..."
The fact that oil can be this high when the economy is in the worst recession since world war II while at the same time crude inventory level is near historic high is something to think about.: _______________________________________________________ I've been in the Oil game for about 5 years now. Played oil and funded wells through the bubble to 147 and back down to 30 and now back near 100. We will see oil near 120 or even 130 before people really get pissed. Why are they not in the streets now, under OBAMA's watch? Why were Americans ready to be-head Bush when oil hit 100 but not OBAMA? The reason oil is moving is "inflation". Period. QE 2 may have helped to prop up the US STOCK MARKET, but it's effect went into oil as well. China raised interest rates last week to cool their economy. Growth of our Economy is very weak at best. Look at the Baltic Dry Index, it seems as if it wants to head lower than when the crises hit in 07/08. So, this could mean a massive drop off in Global Goods being transported world wide. GOLD, AGI and now OIL all point to massive inflation. Not hyper, but massive. Oil will continue to climb and if we have QE3 Oil will climb above the highs when it hit near 147. Gas will be 5 to 6 bucks a gallon. Period. Nothing anyone can do about. Get use to it. Euro-land has had 6 buck gas for decades. Once again, if you have no money or you are a creature of the Sub-burb who drives 3 hours to work....you will feel this. If your in a Urban Area, cost of Mass trans will go up but the Mass Trans riders will not feel it as bad as the Sub-Burb dwellers. Cost of Airline flights will go up, medicine will go up. Bottom line, make more money. The class divide is on and there are only two places to be in this Class War. You choose. Plenty of money to be made out there.
Because Americans have so much more money to spend on gas now that they are living for 2 1/2 years rent free in their homes while in the forclosure process. They dont notice the gas prices now. Under Bush, you had strawberry farmers paying $3-4k per month for a $750,000 house, so a 2 cent rise in gas prices hurt back then. On top of that, all the people that bitched about gas prices lost their jobs, so their cars got repo'd and now they dont even look at gas prices.
I've been totally perplexed about this for a few months as the talking heads foretell a continuing large bull run in the equities market and remind us weekly how the economic recovery is well underway and, of course, Cramer (between swigs of Everclear or LSD, can't quite figure out which), tells us to get positioned right now for the rapidly approaching housing shortage. Seemingly level heads hunched over a pint in back corner of the pub occasionally remind long term investors to watch the Baltic Dry Index for signs of economic recovery, in which case I keep asking myself, "WTF?"
Bingo~!! Great post. At least somebody who understand the reality.. Its amazing that most people don't understand that the Only reason Oil is trading at this level is because the FED and Nothing else!!!!.. The cash basis spread is trading at the same level of the wti and brent futures. Also others physical benchmark are trading at the same level, for example, Oman and venezuela oil benchmarks are trading just 1-2 bucks discount of WTI. So guys, please, stop blaming the especulators.