More than 1/2 the price of oil goes to crony speculators, DEREGULATION..!! pound this into the NEWS

[sam sarrha]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3252.shtml
May 5, 2008, 00:19
The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It’s controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60 percent of today’s crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878
All this is well and official. But how today’s oil prices are really determined is done by a process so opaque only a handful of major oil trading banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley have any idea who is buying and who selling oil futures or derivative contracts that set physical oil prices in this strange new world of “paper oil.”

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/03/21/1721/
CounterPunch March 21. 2008
On Sunday night March 16, 2008 the Federal Reserve made a major advance for financial liberalization and deregulation when it opened up the Fed window to investment banks. For the first time securities underwriters could now borrow at the same advantageous rate as banks from the Fed. Unfortunately it has been deregulation and measures such as this that have helped create the mess we are in.

AND FOOD IS NEXT

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/news/130/ARTICLE/2208/2008-04-25.html
WallStreet speculation. With the dollar tanking and banks and corporations going bankrupt (and being bailed out by the government and the Fed), commodities, such as grains and agriculture are the hottest Wall Street investment sector today! For investors they are a “safe haven” against “the falling dollar and the loss of faith in stock markets.” (Energyandcapital.com)

[annabanana]

1. k&r. . . . n/t

[formercia]

2. Blood sucking parasites

There was a time when they used to hang people for doing this in wartime.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

3. Great Post!!! Enthusiastic K & R n/t

[bluesmail]

4. Recommended and bookmarked

[Robbien]

5. Note that the only ones talking about this are online blog sites

Corporate owned media keeps spouting the meme that high food/oil prices is all due to usage/environment. Speculators have good lobbyists who have bought off the media.

Despite what the media may say, the real cause of high prices is speculation GREED.

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Ain't that the truth!

I post pictures on the truthiness encyclopedia for a captions game and I went looking for a picture of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) who spoke on the floor about dark markets and how the oil industry is behaving the same way as an other unregulated energy industry player, Enron. And I couldn't find one picture. Not even on C-SPAN!

BTW, if anyone can find a picture let me know.

[Quantess]

6. Great OP.

K & R

[Raksha]

7. K & R, and bookmarked.

I haven't had a chance to read the articles yet, but it looks like you're on to something very important here.

[rustydad]

8. wrong

There is some speculation going on but the vast majority of oil price run up comes as the result of demand and supply. Oil production including gas liquids has been flat for three years at around 85 million barrels a day. Demand in China and India has gone up near 10 percent. When any commodity is seen as not meeting demand speculators will purchase high on futures. But you can be sure that most of the $128 dollars for a barrel goes to the producer. And for you folks who think oil is expensive try on this. We have the knowhow to produce a diesel powered car that can hold four adults and travel 100 miles on a gallon of diesel. I saw diesel at close to $5 a gallon yesterday. Now would you and three friends walk 100 miles to save a 5 dollar gallon of diesel? I bet you would pay 100 dollars for that gallon of diesel to save waking 100 miles with your friends. Amerikans are soooo damned spoiled. Wake up. We are the enemy. Bob

[sam sarrha]

9. 10% increase demand doesn't quadruple the price, there is NO SHORTAGE

[rustydad]

13. Yes it does

If the demand for oil goes up 10% and the supply goes up not at all then 10% of oil consumption must be eliminated somewhere. This is math 101. That can happen over time with more efficient use of oil. Or that can happen quickly by demand destruction. That is, the poorest people just stop buying oil when it is beyond their means. We are at Peak Oil. Supply baring a miracle will never go past the 85 million barrels a day we now produce. Believe me that a 10% shortfall in any commodity as important as oil will cause a price rise much more than 10%. Take a look at food lately. No shortages but prices up 50% in some cases. Bob

[sam sarrha]

20. supply is not a problem.. last summer when the "shortage" raised prices, the oklahoma central hub

storage was turning away trucks cause they didn't have space for another load.. this is fabricated

[Strelnikov_]

27. Price elasticity of demand (near perfect inelastic commodity) n/t

The lifeblood of the industrial society.

[zeemike]

10. If you believe it is supply and demand I have a bridge to sell you

Perhaps it is because I have lived longer but I have seen this scam before in the 70s with the oil embargo that was supposed to have a shortage of gas. It was all a manufactured crisis and I know that from real experience.
When speculators and traders learn that they can make a lot of money by creating the perception of shortages then shortages is what we will have.
When we had an effective government that regulated and kept the crooks in check we had free market but not so now.

[rustydad]

14. I'm 65

And I remember the last gas crisis. That occurred mostly because of stupidity. We imported very little oil from the Mid East then. Most was home grown. But when the Middle East went to war they boycotted nations supporting Israel. And we panicked and started filling up the tank every day in fear of shortages. That in turn created real shortages. It could have been avoided easily but our President at the time was wacko. Bob

[uppityperson]

19. Which gas crisis are you talking about here? What yrs, etc? thanks.

[zeemike]

22. The one in the mid 70s

When people were lining up at the gas stations fearful that they would not have any gas for their car.

[uppityperson]

23. OK, so that poster mean Pres. Carter was wacko.

edited because my reply is directed at the other poster. sorry.

[zeemike]

24. Sorry I did not notice until after I replied n/t

[uppityperson]

30. No problem, answering was fine, it was what I thought but wasn't sure

Hoping he meant reagan/papabush and not Carter for a wacko president though.

[zeemike]

21. I am 65 too Bob

And I remember the gas shortages too but a little differently.
I was working for a company that fired it's plant boilers with natural gas and in the middle of the so called oil shortages they changed over to burning oil. And when someone asked why they said there was a shortage of natural gas. That of course was a big lie because at that time we had reserves of natural gas to last hundreds of years.
And I mentioned this to a Ship's Capitan that fan ships in the gulf of Mexico and he laughed and told me that there were tankers full of oil anchored off shore unable to unload because the storage was full.
So it was all a big manipulation to get the price of gas and oil up and had noting to do with supply and demand.
And it worked so well then that they are using it now to drive up the price of food as well as gas.

[JANdad]

11. If there is a shortage...

Then why is it that I can buy as much as I want, wherever I am and at any time?

[rustydad]

15. Because....

...somewhere somebody without the means to buy oil at the current price is not buying the oil. So you can. He who can pay gets the oil. Simple concept. Bob

[Subdivisions]

16. Exactly. Also,

Think issues with oil supply can't reach you? Ask the people in these countries if they used to think that too:



And here:

http://dieoff.org/42Countries/42Countries.htm">THE WORLD PETROLEUM LIFE-CYCLE

Remember this: We import 60% of our oil every day. You know why? This is why:

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrfpus2A.htm

And if you need this plotted with a crayon:




People view "Peak Oil" as if it is a conspiracy and not a real physical phenomenon. IT'S NOT EVEN A THEORY! What it means is Peak oil is the premise that at some point, the world’s oil production is going to peak. It does not mean that we will run out, just that we will no longer be producing more and more oil every year. Instead we will be producing less and less. Demand of course will continue rising, which will result in increasing oil prices. Without getting into too much detail (read Hubbert’s Peak) here is some basic data.

The following graph showing oil finds per year along with use:



And here is world oil production:



And this from the US Army College:



http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/JulAug99/MS406.htm">Fueling the Force in the Army After Next—Revolution or Evolution?



Now, you show me your evidence that we are not current at the stage of Peak Oil...hmmmmm?

[Subdivisions]

17. delete wrong place

[Strelnikov_]

28. Rationing by price

The third world/poorer nations are doing without.

Our shortages, initially for diesel fuel/heating oil, begin this fall.

[LSK]

32. demand has gone up $40 - $50 in the past 2 years how??????????

Did China DOUBLE its cars in 2 years?

[nichomachus]

12. There's a quick and easy answer

[sam sarrha]

29. the French really know how to throw a revolution, remove em from the gene pool, unfortunately it

looks like their problem is genetic, apparently few people become socio-psychopathic clepto-plutocrats.. that is why the really BIG OLD MONEY runs in families, it is a Doomsday Gene.. it will kill us all.

this is just part of it
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/09/20/liberal-conservative-brain-differences/

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=liberal+brain+differences&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

[Subdivisions]

18. KICKING FOR A CHALLENGE!!! Prove me wrong...

Peak oil naysayers here's your chance to produce your evidence.

Prove me wrong. I WANT YOU TO. But you all go scurrying like cockroaches when I've asked for you to back up your bullshit before. In fact, I'm going to cross-post this to the main GD board so I'm sure ALL of you sheeple see it. Then YOU ALL are extended the opportunity to shut me up about PO. Go ahead, I dare you.

Otherwise, henceforth shall ye please STFU and let me sound my warnings without your interference?

I really would appreciate either one or the other.

[mmonk]

26. Yes. The point I've tried to make numerous times

whenever there are posts claiming peak oil. Peak oil may indeed come soon, but extraction and production costs first have to move higher in relation to the rising prices.

[AzDar]

31. K & R....

:kick:

[LSK]

33. someone on the radio suggested a high speculator tax

Which would drive many of them out of this business and would reduce the price of oil.