Posted on 07/13/2009 1:31:38 PM PDT by FromLori
Why?
Agreed. The split between buy and sell price will widen, because all those evil speculators are no longer there to carry the risk.
Tough luck for people who need to buy oil in the long term ( after this short-term glut finishes). And who will FReepers blame then?
“the fact remains that demand for oil is not elastic.
we may use less of it but we will always use some.”
Prices affects demand in the margin. Raising it a dollar doesn’t have to result in people abandoning their cars and walking everywhere for it to be “elastic”.
I hardly need to convince anybody on these boards about my knowledge of economics, but I sure don’t need to waste my time with some hayseed telling me about supply and demand. In a completely free (and totally nonexistent) market, speculation might act to stabilize prices. In the real world, the one with the birds and the light and the air and stuff, speculators destabilize such markets, or at least elevate prices and create disequilibria. If you want to talk a free market, you need to get on a plane and talk to a guy who looks like he stole the tablecloth from Pizza Hut as headgear. I’m talking about what is, not what could ideally be.
We need a new Governor, one with the cajones to do this.
“This spike didn’t help Republicans because Dems used the ‘crisis’ as a campaign tool.”
I do recall last summer being boom-time for global warming hysteria. But was anyone but the choir really listening?
I also remember “Drill here, drill now!” being popular and tracking good poll numbers. McCain was well positioned to use it against Obama. Then the bailout frenzy hit, and nobody cared anymore.
DITTO. Market was design for users of oil to lock in prices, not non users to use it as a casino to distort the swings to the point that they cause recessions and booms.
So this is the difference? I knew Oil was always traded but didn’t realize the difference.
So it was only intended for the USERS of oil?
Wasn’t the change that allowed this to happen in the year 1999? I thought I heard Dick Morris talk about this once.
But— but— but— but— PEAK OIL!!!!1!!!!one!!!!!!
DITTO. Market was design for users of oil to lock in prices, not non users to use it as a casino to distort the swings to the point that they cause recessions and booms.
So this is the difference? I knew Oil was always traded but didn’t realize the difference.
So it was only intended for the USERS of oil?
Wasn’t the change that allowed this to happen in the year 1999? I thought I heard Dick Morris talk about this once.
“speculation which is not about the market of supply and demand of oil”
I’m at a loss as to how speculation is not about the market. They’re trying to get rich by predicting the future, right? You can say this is one example of the market not working well, but you can’t say it’s not the “real market”. For everything that people do voluntarily on the free market is real. If it’s a problem of their manipulation leading to a bad result, that’s not the same thing as saying it’s not real. Their manipulation is part of reality, as it is in every market on the face of the earth.
“Why?”
Because Bill O’Reilly demonizes speculators like a latter-day Herbert Hoover.
the only downside I see is that we have Pavlov trained the Dems to threaten regulation in order to manipulate markets, and since this apparently worked they are not going to stop with oil.
However, the anti-spec crowd ONLY considers specs as longs, and thus evilly driving up prices. Ho hum. Nor would teaching economics in pulbic screwels help this situation; the 'teachers' would, in large majority, be equally ill-informed or outright socialists/Marxists.
Hardly.
“And as for those enviro-nuts: put the platforms west of Yankeetown and thereabouts. No beaches there, just marshland”
Actually one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to is just outside of Yankeetown. It is in the looming shadow of a nuclear power plant. Wonderful place and I’d go back again in a heartbeat.
Crude futures only began trading in 1983, as a delayed reaction to the oil ‘’shocks’’ of the 1970s. ‘’Always’’???
Thanks.
“In a completely free (and totally nonexistent) market, speculation might act to stabilize prices. In the real world, the one with the birds and the light and the air and stuff, speculators destabilize such markets, or at least elevate prices and create disequilibria.”
Not to get into economic theory too much (because you’re too much of a realist for it, though apparently are also a master of it), but who ever said prices are supposed to be stable? Heck, I always figured that stuff about equilibrium was a model to contrast with reality, to show people what markets are aiming for, rather than arriving at. I also always figured that the better way to shoot for your dreams and get to equilibrium was not to pursue stability, but rather its opposite: an endless process of trial-and-error.
No.
Good.
Will.
Come.
Of.
This.
I guarantee it. Anytime the government meddles in what a market can bear, it is a disaster. Yesterday, it was corporate salaries. Now it is a roof on speculation. Tomorrow, what is it going to be? A limit on how much you can make by investing? How much you are allowed to be paid in a middle class job?
Once this line is crossed, there will be no stopping it. Every success they have in this type of intrusion only emboldens them to go further and deeper.
And they will. I guarantee it.
I predict gas lines and shortages. Just sayin. But hey, that might be JUST what they want. See my tagline.
Because Bill O’Reilly demonizes speculators like a latter-day Herbert Hoover.
I’ve been trying to figure out why BO still has ratings.
So they don’t expect recovery anytime in the near future?
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