StOP Speculation NOW. COM

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by marketsurfer, Jul 11, 2008.

  1. teun

    teun

    It is really so stupid to think that speculation has anything to do with the current oil prices.

    Production can still be increased from fields with a marginal price of $10/bbl.

    The price you see now is the price whereby we (the consumers) start decreasing our oil usage. Things like:

    - change in US driving behaviour
    - reduced flights
    - decrease in fuel subsidies

    will decrease the demand with a few % at current prices. But a few % is huge in terms of million barrels per day.

    This has nothing to do with speculation.
     
    #11     Jul 12, 2008
  2. "Socialism reduces productivity and wealth. This means less to spend on hospitals, schools, food, and the production inefficiency increases the cost of living. The reduced medical & health standards alone have killed more people than died in the Holocaust."

    I'm not sure where the idea that 'Socialism' reduces productivity and wealth comes from. A ranking of nations according to 'standard of living' shows that the leading countries are all based to some degree on 'socialism'. None of the countries with low tax rates and/or low regulatory mechanisms appear the top 20 (the USA is ranked 12th). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index).

    I'm not sure where you, Cutten, come up with the figure that 'reduced medical & heath standards have killed more people than the Holocaust'?!?!? I know from your previous posts that you don't throw numbers around irresponsibly. All of the top 20 nations in the list have the highest life expectancy on the planet and this is due heavy-handed regulations from the gov't. Public schools, hospitals and high health standards are the epitome of 'Socialism'.

    I am not arguing against the concept of 'speculation': I make a living from it. However, I am saying that, for the largest number of people, it is not the BEST way to set up our world. Find a way to eliminate fraud, stagnation of ideas, and prevent the concentration of power/ideas and Oneworld Communism is obviously the best form of gov't that we can evole to. In the meantime, until the death of Nationalism, socialism is the best way to go. Whether this is done in the manner that we follow in the US (grudgingly) or wholeheartedly like France will have to be constantly evaluated.

    Finally, in terms of the price of oil & gasoline: I definitely want them to go higher. Higher on a absolute and a relative basis. We in the US have not been paying the full social cost of energy. Cheap gas has increased urban sprawl reducing farmland and destroying wilderness habitat. It has also increased air, water, and soil pollution. Imagine our world in 30 years (I'll be dead) with 1 billion additional auto owners in China, Russia, Brazil, and India. Hgher gas prices will make alternatives more attractive and might possibly save our environment. I'm fine with gas hitting $8 per gallon (which is about what it costs in most of the developed world).

    It is tme to stop focusing on growth for growth's sake and worrying more about allocating the current pie on a more equitable basis.
     
    #12     Jul 13, 2008
  3. The oil bubble will not end until we have Chinese grandmothers daytrading oil futures (like in the DOT COM bubble) :D


    It's the major players who are driving up oil maybe even the OPEC oil CARTEL (ahem). But as per usual they will use this as an excuse to ban the little guy (us) from speculating on oil.

    Remember, the house always wins. :(
     
    #13     Jul 13, 2008
  4. The government is going to take away the one great inflation hedge from guys like you and me. The billions in hedge funds will find a way around it. But traders trying to make a living, or people just trying to protect their wealth from the inflationary pressures of the trillion dollar government deficit will lose one of the best tools to do that, crude oil. Crude has become a currency, much more useful than gold because it is needed by the whole world at any price. Wake up people to the idiots running this country into the ground with their overblown budgets and idiotic policy.
     
    #14     Jul 13, 2008
  5. Every time some imbecile (sometimes a jackass) says speculation is not a factor, I am more convinced that it is.

    Thanks for the heads up morons.
     
    #15     Jul 13, 2008
  6. Covert

    Covert

    Be interesting to see how you 'act' on this heads up! From what I can see, hopefully it won't take time from you're incredibly successful ET posting career.

    Logic like yours aside, did you ever stop to think that the fact that people keep saying that speculation isn't to blame has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on whether or not it actually does? Didn't think so. Carry on...
     
    #16     Jul 13, 2008
  7. Speculation effects prices. Duh.
     
    #17     Jul 13, 2008
  8. Incomplete idea. Speculation with SIZE affects prices

    Will our 5 or 10 car trade move the market? Nope. Will a cartel's 1000 car trade do it? Yup.

    Guess who they will ban - the little guy or the big guy...
     
    #18     Jul 13, 2008
  9. I would present the opposite view that countries do well despite social policies and capitalism is so strong that even with the drag of govt interference they are still able to produce wealth.

    I am unaware of any case where companies or countries became more efficient or produced more wealth by becoming nationalized or socialism became policy. There are many many many examples of this happening and yet non show a net gain. I think your example of France shows how the govt policies have hurt youth unemployment.

    I am not trying to be insulting to you or the many people in this forum who feel like you do. I do have a very hard time ((impossible actually) in understanding how someone can understand economics and the free market and still think socialism is a good idea. Perhaps in some fantasy world where people will do things differently then thay do in this world it may make sense but the fact of the matter is that people on the 3rd rock generally act in their own best interest.

    The only thing I can think of that would allow someone to think socialism is a good idea is someone that allows emotion to be a factor in decision making. As emotion is a much stronger motivator then logic this seens to be the best possibility that I know of.

    I guess in the end I should be thankful for people that allow emotion to control their actions for it is these people that I make a living trading off of.
     
    #19     Jul 13, 2008
  10. A 1 lot can move the market. Witness a cascading stop in an electronic order matching book. All it takes is a single displaced buyer or seller. These days its like 1000 1 lots via ETF's. Joe Sixpack through portfolio diversification is now an unforeseen squeezer of shorts.

    Just because speculation moves prices doesn't mean that speculation is profitable. I'll give you an example. For all we know oil is CHEAP and only because speculators have been shorting oil has it remained below $150. That's just as possible as oil being overpriced because of speculation. It wasn't too long ago when farmers would protest in front of the CBOT accusing short sellers of driving down grain prices. Now we hear of these same specs driving up grain prices. Depends on who's ox is being gored, eh?

    If for instance America exported most our food and energy we'd be rejoicing over higher grain and oil prices. Same with housing. Easy credit was akin to margin buying. Guy's who owned their homes were stoked by the frenzy. Others who were renting and hence "short" a house were crying in their soup. What happened to the speculative buyers? They were smoked. Now the world laments the high mark to markets they created in home prices! Everyone has a side of a trade and now days everyone whines....
     
    #20     Jul 13, 2008