Where are you getting all this? I was saying that when the station's tank in the ground is close to empty a truck is nearby to fill it up again. Meaning that there's no shortage here or anywhere and that station's tanks do not dry-up once they run out. You're reading into what I'm saying too much.

 

just wanted to clear that up..

 

its at 5$

 

gas in iraq is 42 cents a gallon

gas in venezuela is 18 cent per

 

Fact remains that it only costs somewhere between $5 and about $20 to extract a barrel of oil from any of the operating fields, so in fact, Saudis and Venezuelans are some of the only people paying anything resembling true supply and demand driven, cost based prices.

Speculation and "peak oil" fears have the rest of the world at the mercy of JP Morgan and other investment firms who have nothing to do with the production, processing, transportation or delivery, but through market manipulation they have artificially driven futures and thus crude prices to the insane levels we see these days.

According to Reuters, April petroleum consumption in the United States went down 3.9% from March, to the lowest level for any April in six years, yet even with a decreasing demand, the market is so inflated that the oil companies will continue to post record profits.

Until the speculators are forced to actually back up the bets they place on futures with real assets, this con game is going to continue until the country is in ruins.

 

Simply blaming the speculators is really not going to do much. If you look at the consensus in the energy industry and among economists, most of the increases in oil prices still come down to supply and demand, as well as a weak dollar. Obviously they are playing some role, but they are significantly less important than politicians are portraying them as. Most of the attempts to reign in speculation at best are going to have little or no effect, and at worst will increase prices. Here is some interesting reading if you have the time.

Interesting analysis of oil prices:
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/...ice_funda.html

Really good analysis of the market
http://www.instituteforenergyresearc...peculators.pdf

 

Psoper,

This may be the first time I've 100% agreed with you. Great post. Absolutely right. Everyone read this post and forget any hype you hear elsewhere. As I said before, we're basically at war which a bunch of greedy *******s that have unlimited resources to do play russian roulette with our lives.

 

At this point I think blame on the weak dollar, even in the slightest bit, is weak . I remember reading somewhere that Scientists said the public should be more concerned with running out of potable water than worry about oil. And yet I still pay .98 if I want a gallon of it at the store, damn near free from the tap. If anything, raising gas prices may give the impression that the dollar is weaker than it actually is these days.

 

However, we too are playing russian roulette with our lives. It takes two to tango in a free market, and the fact remains that simple supply and demand shows we are never going to have .98 gas ever again. Governmental regulation is NOT going to do anything, it will only make the problem worse.