I'll admit that I'm no expert on oil or the industry. However, I do buy gas regularly. Everyone can see that the price of gas has moved up pretty fast and continues to do so. The general rationale this time seems to be all the unrest in the Middle East is causing risk. That's all fine and dandy but nothing has actually happened to the oil supply chain. This seems like somebody is collecting a risk premium for nothing. What really burns me is that the "somebody" is not fessing up to it. Trying to find out who is profiting the most from current conditions is impossible at best. You will see various talking heads on TV trying to sound like they too are being victimized by higher prices. Where is all the money going, exactly?
True enough, but oil is up alot more than the $ is down. My contention is that its a scam. The futures markets are just an excuse for the mobsters to extract a toll. No diff than some mafioso paying you a visit and saying you own him 10% for protection. I like that they are asking questions in Washington, but I doubt they have the balls or the smarts to nail down exactly how they do it.
Listen to how stupid and idiotic all this sounds. Joe Public: "Traders/speculators are driving up the price of oil and getting rich at the cost of all of us average americans!" Trader: "Why don't you just buy oil futures and get rich?" Joe Public: "Because what if it goes down? Then I lose all my money right? Trader: "Ok, then go short and get rich!" Joe Public: "But if it goes up then I lose all my money right?" Trader: "Are you starting to see the flaw in your opening statement?" Joe Public: "Uggghh, fuck you, you guys are all ruining the country!" Trader: "Another beer please." ---------------------------------- LMAO... you are correct in one sense. JOE PUBLIC has very little clue about Speculation let along the Financial Markets. Hence Joe Public believes in Dollar Cost averaging and buying a home on a JUMBO load, 6x his net worth, thinking he is the next Trump. Of course there is the exception to JOE PUBLIC, but it's a very small % of the public.
GATT is completely correct. It's inflation. Price the cost of oil in something like gold and its relatively flat. If American's are going to rely on inflating the dollar to drag themselves out of a recession than their going to have to pay the price at the pump. They better get used to it because it's only going to get worse.
Dollar down and oil up are not corollaries. The futures markets exist and are wildly popular because of many reasons, as many as there are futures markets, in fact. You are discounting all the farmers that trade, the cereal, etc companies that buy deliverable contracts, the big banks that purchase futures contracts just before programs buy their stock baskets, etc etc etc. You are discounting almost everyone. Look to your precious Washington for the quantitative (r)eas(on)ing on why oil and food are getting more outrageous. Or is it because you own a Denali?
I wouldn't give a shit if you clowns were only costing yourselves money. In fact , I'd be amused as hell. Laugh about it. Not gonna waste too much time here on it, but suffice to say, the ease in which even the possibility of futures traders goosing the price unnecessarily, is dismissed, is reason enough for it to be investigated. There's no Mafia and Mel Gibson's voice was faked on those tapes too, right? What is it, makes you feel all free markety and beyond tinfoil hatism to dismiss any notion of manipulation, either by collusion or simply the forces of speculation? If the next time you went to buy a quart of milk , it was $5, would you just accept it without question? How about $10. Shmucks.
For those of you with a three year old mentality on this subject, maybe a cartoon will help to explain it better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7V9BnJXO8&feature=player_embedded
Good point, but not just the American consumer -- also the world's consumers, most nobably the emerging middle classes of India and China, who want their share of the oil as well. We could very well (albeit not without pain) wean ourselves off of imported oil entirely -- after all, virtually no petroleum was needed for the typical American lifestyle 100 years ago. Yet now it seems we're selling the country off, bit by bit, to pay for overconsumption in the here and now. Let's hope that changes.
We could very well (albeit not without pain) wean ourselves off of imported oil entirely ---------------------------------------------------------------- I think we can do it without much pain to be honest. I've been involved in the Domestic Oil industry for a while now. Boon Pickens had a great idea on nati gas. We are flooded with Natural Gas in this country. We have a boat load of oil beyond the shale that is being drilled today. However, that is not what the OBAMA administration wants. He wants higher oil prices. PERIOD. He thinks higher oil prices will ring in more useless alternative energy projects that have a reality of going live 60 years from now. Higher oil prices, he thinks, will make the Electric Car by Government Motors more attractive. For the idiots who believe the price of oil is pushed up my 'Traders" due to manipulation....as the key reason for price inflation, your not only fools but your about as smart as a fucking cockroach. I'm not saying that the "Masses" going long will not influence price. Why are the traders going long? That is the questions you fucking fools. I'm not going to spell it out because dealing with 90% of you Parasites on this Chat Site is not only a waste of time but it depresses me as I now know why idiots like you are voting for more idiots and destroying the country.