Posted on 06/25/2008 6:38:22 AM PDT by kellynla
Compared to the alternative, McCain is a genius. I have no desire to return to Carternomics.
With no speculators prices would even be higher because we’d have oil shortages. Speculators are essentially insurance for the suppliers.
What ever happened to the Good Ol' Days when everybody just assumed the oil companies were buying up competing technology and squashing innovation in order to maintain their energy monopoly? You know, the old technology exists to produce a car that gets 100 MPG, but the oil companies are preventing it from coming to the market trope, beloved of scam marketers of magnets and fuel filters everywhere.
It is BS, of course. But at least it is BS that recognizes that the oil business has an interest in promoting the oil business, and not competing technologies. This notion that the oil companies should be working diligently to put themselves out of business is just stupid.
What ever happened to the Good Ol' Days when everybody just assumed the oil companies were buying up competing technology and squashing innovation in order to maintain their energy monopoly? You know, the old technology exists to produce a car that gets 100 MPG, but the oil companies are preventing it from coming to the market trope, beloved of scam marketers of magnets and fuel filters everywhere.
It is BS, of course. But at least it is BS that recognizes that the oil business has an interest in promoting the oil business, and not competing technologies. This notion that the oil companies should be working diligently to put themselves out of business is just stupid.
A good economic primer.
Please read it Senator McCain! And you too Obama!
I'm sick and tired of this "obscene profits" argument and hope someone from the McCain camp reads this post. Algore, Mr. Earth in the Balance, has made millions sitting on the board of directors for Google and Apple. Spend 5 minutes on Yahoo Finance and you will find the following Profit Margins. You tell me which ones are "obscene":
Exxon - 10.85%
Google - 24.89%
Apple - 15.13%
This is one reason why I’m not voting for McCain.
Memo to McCain's handler's:
1) Tell him to learn some economics.
2) Tell him to never, ever start a statement with "I am very angry, frankly"
Who is Frank? And why is John McCain so mad at him?
McCain is convinced he can win without conservative positions and that conservatives will vote for him anyway because they don’t have a choice. He won’t be conservative if he wins election and he won’t be able to appoint conservative judges because a true conservative will be blocked in the Senate. I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt re: not wanting my vote since he thinks moderates and independents will carry the day for him. I’m voting third party.
I doubt that speculators are responsible for much of the run-up of oil prices. Why didn't they run them up sooner? Besides, there are too many other explanations: increased demand from China and India, the declining dollar and Middle East tensions.
The Middle East tensions are speculator related unless he's trying to say that Middle East "events" are actually reducing the supply of oil. Last I saw Iraq was pumping a fair amount and more then when the prices were lower.
As T. Boone Pickens said, it’s merely a matter “supply & demand”, there is a reserve presently of less than 27 million barrels a day with a demand for about 28 million barrels a day and if there were a more substantial dependable supply available (read MADE IN USA), those contracts that speculators/traders hold for $140 barrel oil wouldn’t be worth the paper they’re written on...
DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW!
“There were two main reasons for the market’s sceptical response. Saudi Arabia has only offered to boost its output by 200,000 barrels a day (b/d), about 0.2% of the world’s current consumption of 87m b/d. Worse, its leaders had told various foreign grandees about their plans in the preceding weeks, so oil traders had already digested the news and were looking for more.
And even as Saudi Arabia’s output rises, Nigeria’s is falling. Insurgents in the country’s oil-rich delta region have attacked a pipeline belonging to Chevron and an offshore oil platform owned by Royal Dutch Shell in recent days, forcing both firms to cut production. Some 300,000 b/d of output has been lost, outweighing Saudi Arabia’s gesture.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036098/posts
A perfect example of this is to compare USAir and Southwest right now.
USAir is cutting capacity, charging baggage, and other, fees, charging for drinks, upping prices.
Southwest are totally add-on fee free.
What’s the difference?
Southwest are currently paying for fuel at prices that they bought forward on a year ago.
A perfect example of this is to compare USAir and Southwest right now.
USAir is cutting capacity, charging baggage, and other, fees, charging for drinks, upping prices.
Southwest are totally add-on fee free.
What’s the difference?
Southwest are currently paying for fuel at prices that they bought forward on a year ago.
Yep. If you really want to screw the speculator, the way to do that is DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!
Right now, they are speculating that the US government is run by a bunch of chumps who will run the economy into the ground to cover their butts and for short term political gain.
Sounds like a pretty safe bet to me!
I hear you! I just screened for the next rank up in the Navy and I will not put it on until next year. I am very afraid that the Messiah will waltz in and put a freeze on all military advancements as soon as he takes over.
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