Posted on 04/21/2006 10:46:54 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures climbed to a high of $75 per barrel Friday for the first time ever for a front-month contract on concerns about tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear activities, violence in Nigeria, and tight U.S. supplies of unleaded gasoline. June crude was last up $1.26, or 1.7%, at $74.95 per barrel. "We often see this sort of short covering in a record-setting bull market ahead of a weekend, since nobody is sure where we may be Monday," said trader Kevin Kerr, who is also editor of MarketWatch's Global Resources Trader.
"...This market is dictated by fear mongering...."
If that's the case, then nobody can tell me this is nothing BUT price gouging.
Let's face facts. With the government-approved mergers of big oil companies, competition is dead.
Why is the United States determined to control Iran? In order to answer that question we must understand just a little about economics. In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt decoupled the dollar from gold, but gold was still being paid to other countries as they redeemed U.S. dollars. During 1970-1971, the United States was no longer able to pay other governments with gold, and the nations of the world were stuck with continually inflating U.S. dollars. In order to maintain global demand for the U.S. dollar, the U.S. Government made a 1972-73 arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the House of Saud if they, Saudi Arabia and all of the OPEC, the oil producing nations, would accept only U.S. dollars for payment of oil. Now all of the oil-hungry nations of the world were forced to clamor for the ever-inflating U.S. dollar since it was the only means by which they could purchase that commodity. This established the strength of the dollar as it was now backed in a defacto sense by oil.
In the year 2000, one man dared to reject the U.S. dollar for payment for oil and chose to accept the Euro instead. This threatened the dollar severely. That man was Saddam Hussein! He suddenly became the greatest villain in the world and became dreadfully evil. Here let it be noted that he was just as evil when we armed him, supported him, and embraced him years earlier. We overlooked his infamy then, but this rejection of the dollar vilified him above measure. When President Bush announced his policy of shock and awe and pounded Iraq, he quickly re-established the dollar as the only oil money. That is what the Iraqi war is all about.
Here let it be noted that Iran has announced that as of March 21st, 2006, that it will no longer accept U.S. dollars for oil, and that it has persuaded all of the OPEC nations to accept the Euro and other currencies as well. None of the nations will have to buy and hold dollars to buy oil, and this will reduce the U.S. dollar to nearly junk status on the world market. That is why it has been determined that Iran must be punished!
Iran will not use the American dollar as the purchasing currency for oil. Iran has been inducing OPEC to scrap the American dollar, which the OPEC nations required for payment of oil no matter what country was buying it. President Bush has been playing up to the so-called friendly Arab nations to induce OPEC to retain the U.S. dollar as purchasing currency for oil. Mr. Bush has offered the Arabs our seaports, toll roads, airlines and airports, forest lands, and almost anything else he can sell them. It was all to be done in a very surreptitious and clandestine manner. On February 23rd, 2006, the Associated Press released the story of White House documents proving that the deal with the Arabs was under a secret agreement with the Bush Administration.
Please, do go on.
Exxon found ONE new barrel of oil in the ground for every SIX it produced last year.
Which one were you referring too?
$4.00 per gallon gas (it's already $3.35 and climbing at some places around here) and shortages to boot, are going to lead to a Democratic takeover of Congress this November.
It DOESN'T MATTER how much rhetoric a few Freepers are going to extoll regarding the concept of "free markets". It doesn't matter one whit
Seriously, after 9/11 I was convinced, naively, that we would do the following:
Winter is a big deterrent......
For the last thiety five years I have seen gas prices increase every summur {vacation travel}and in the winter {heating costs}never changes never will.
If you are going to quote from an article to make your point, that is all well and good, but it is appropriate to mark it in quotations and give the source.
"Why is the United States determined to control Iran? In order to answer that question we must understand just a little about economics. In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt decoupled the dollar from gold, but gold was still being paid to other countries as they redeemed U.S. dollars. During 1970-1971, the United States was no longer able to pay other governments with gold, and the nations of the world were stuck with continually inflating U.S. dollars. In order to maintain global demand for the U.S. dollar, the U.S. Government made a 1972-73 arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the House of Saud if they, Saudi Arabia and all of the OPEC, the oil producing nations, would accept only U.S. dollars for payment of oil. Now all of the oil-hungry nations of the world were forced to clamor for the ever-inflating U.S. dollar since it was the only means by which they could purchase that commodity. This established the strength of the dollar as it was now backed in a defacto sense by oil."
Holy plagiarism Batman! That looks exactly like your post # 262.
In fact it's taken directly from http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/2006/March2006.html
Have a nice Sunday.
In the interim, the US military will annex the Venezuelan and Middle Eastern oil fields until energy independence is achieved.
BUMP
No foul. In fact I probably over reacted. It doesn't seem so bad, now that I have had some coffee and breakfast. ;)
I'm just glad this controversy mentions the big elephant in the room no will talk about.
There is no indication of a war with iran.
If you're so sure, go short! Put your money where you mouth is. If you're right, you could make a killing.
The reserve is supposed to be for strategic emergencies, like the Saudi or Iranian oilfields going offline. The current situation hardly qualifies.
Actually, no. Europe and Japan are much less dependent on petroleum than we are. Their higher gas taxes have lead to higher fuel effeciency standards as well as a more diversified source of energy production and transportation.
We've done next to nothing about energy for the last 20 years, even as the writing has been on the wall. The chickens are coming home to roost.
IF Congress substantially relaxed regulations on new refineries, and IF the NIMBY attitudes could be overcome, oil companies would still have little incentive to build a new refinery. Expanding capacity of existing refineries makes a lot more sense.
That's why refiners aren't launching a public opinion campaign to build new refineries.
I appreciate that take on the situation.
Expansion of existing refineries may get us thru the near-term pinch we are in, or maybe not. The hurdles to do even that are staggering.
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