Is manipulation responsible for the skyrocketing price of oil?

by nvrgnbk 52 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  cognizant dissident

  Get used to it folks, the era of cheap gas has gone for ever. It will never return and this better become a financial reality in our lives sooner rather than later.

  I agree HS. While I have no doubt manipulation of the market does take place, I do doubt the mighty oil conglomerates are going to suddenly care about my financial reality and whether I can afford gas. People need to adapt to this reality for themselves. Buy smaller cars, better on gas. Plan trips to avoid useless wasting of resources. Start putting plans in place for alternative energy sources for our homes and vehicles. My next car is going to be a zen car. It wouldn't hurt everyone to be a little more conscious of frugality as our parents and grandparents were during the great depression.

  Cog
• 

  Farkel

  :Is manipulation responsible for the skyrocketing price of oil?

  Sometimes seeming problems like this are so simple to understand that even a child gets it. The skyrocketing price of oil is due to the simple reason that lately the price of oil has just shot up so high lately.

  And they will continue to go up and up. Unless they go down and down, that is.

  Farkel
• 

  cognizant dissident

  Good point Farkel. When I say manipulation I don't mean in the sense of some evil conspiracy. If you want to get technical, the price of all products are manipulated by the owners of said products in order to control demand and maximize profits. This is true for Big Mac's and Big Oil. If we don't like, it we can vote with our pocket books and eat less Big Macs and waste less fuel. There is no big mystery in it.

  Cog
• 

  restrangled

  Lets not forget that Cheney and Bush are heavily invested in oil. Bush can charge the tax payers of this country for a trip to Saudi Arabia asking for help while the Saudi's tell him no to any help he asked for.

  Tee Hee, it doesn't hurt Bush's bottom line....in fact he had no clue prices were going to rise to $4.00 a gallon. (Supposedly)

  http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/bush-falsely-claims-hes-focused-on-gas-prices/

  enjoy the manipulation by our own president.

  r.
• 

  hillary_step

  What is often hard to grasp is that the oil market is not about oil, it is about the movement of money. The oil industry is about oil.

  Both these forces interplay continously, and always have, as does any other commodity.

  HS
• 

  BFD

  All I know is that I paid $4.19/gal today, someone is getting rich and it ain't me.

  BFD
• 

  BurnTheShips

  If oil companies have the means to increase supply to meet demand but do not do so in order to keep prices high, this is still manipulation of the supply side of the equation.

  Well, do they? How much can the oil companies and OPEC boost production?

  1%?

  5%?

  25%

  There is very little spare capacity right now. This is a geological reality.

  EDIT:

  "No doubt speculation is boosting the oil price, and perhaps oil markets are also being manipulated," said David Strahan, a trustee for the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, a U.K.-based charity. "But the reason the oil price continues to soar, and why investors apparently see crude as a one-way bet, is a growing physical shortage of supply."

  "Even if the CFTC investigation does uncover market manipulation it is unlikely to moderate the oil price, since the fundamental cause is geological constraint and the approaching global oil production peak," Strahan said.

  http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=225711

  As HS pointed out, we are stuck with this. We can chop off heads of those engaged in dishonest practices (and we should), but that will not resolve the problem. The only way global demand is going to decline is either a global recession, or we switch to alternatives. Guess which is more likely near term?

  BTS
• 

  Witness 007

  50 Billion record in oil profit for one quarter...........common! And the price keeps going up??? Banks and Oil companies rule the world.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  This "net export" decline is leaving importers bidding up the price to attempt to maintain market share.

  Precisely. Some exporting countries are not yet in decline, but production is flat. However, they themselves are consuming more oil, partly thanks to the boost that high oil prices are providing their economies. If their production is flat, and their consumption is up, their exports are down. The prime example of this process (declining exports partly due to increasing domestic demand) in recent decades has been the UK.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_Land_Model

  OPEC will be next.

  BTS
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Thanks, Burn .

  You article asserts that the difference in the oil price is due to manipulation. This is false.

  What is the difference? Manipulation!

  BTS