Continuing trend of last 10 days...
Tell that to the North Carolina gas stations - they're still charging 3 bucks a gallon
Natalie
No, they're just gouging for as long as they can!
:-)
Natalie
better tell them to get their ass in gear. We're down to a whopping $2.69/gal and trending down. I suspect we'll be below 2.50 before long, whooo-Hooooo!!
Hey remember the good old days of $1.80/gal? How easy it is to get used to higher prices. I remember the good old days of .28/gal and if it went to .32 everybody complained like today, LOL.
I remember paying .27 to run a mini-bike, and I bought ONE TANK at .35. Next fill was .52
We're at 3.14 here, but since I have somewhat 'high-performance' engines, I use at least 89, so add .10 to that...
We're seeing gas go down MAYBE a couple cents. They went down REAL FAST from 3.19 to 2.99 when the Attorney General got onto them for price gouging. Today they went from 2.91 down to 2.90. They jumped a quarter a jump going up, but only a penny a time coming down. Crooks. Gasoline futures are back down to 1.90 or so.
The spirit of Johnny Rockefeller lives. . . .
Charles of Kankakee.
It's times like this that make me embarrassed to live in a capitalist country; but warts and all, America is still a fantastic place to live
Natalie, waving the flag
As predicted, gas prices went from a $1.40 average to a $3.00 so that when it drops back to around $2.50, people won't complain anymore.
For once, Gary, i completely agre with you! Hell, I'm rejoicing at $2.99! $2.50 will be great!
You may be onto something there...
"Charles @ Kankakee" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
You know absolutely zero about John D. Rockefeller. Maybe even less than zero. It's amazing how some people parrot the worst shit they hear as though it were established fact.
An excellent book for you to (not) read: The Myth of the Robber Barons, by Burton W. Folsom Jr. It's $8 at Amazon, not that anyone in this group will ever actually *read* a book (what's a book?)...
Damn. Where are you at? We're just an RCH short of $3 here...in the Great Northeast...
They've wanted gas at $3 a gallon since the one winter after 9/11 where demand was so low it was just above $1 a gallon. Gas futures are in the
1.90 range, so they're making 1.00 gross profit minus taxes right now . . . .Charles of Kankakee
Not to disagree with you, but why then do gas prices move in unison in places like Kankakee if there's no collusion or price fixing? Since the beginning of summer, there hasn't been 5 cents difference between Royal Dutch Shell and Citgo around here. If one moves, within an hour, they are all moved the same way. I know the delivery trucks don't move that fast.
And why are 4 of the Seven Sisters that seem to control gas prices (now merged into 4 companies) parts of the old Standard Oil empire? The only non-Standard Oil companies around here are Phillips (bought out by Conoco, another ex-Standard Oil alumnus) BP (owns Amoco, ex Standard Oil of Indiana) Shell and Citgo. We have Starvin Marvin, which is Ashland/Marathon, part of the Standard Oil trust. I don't even think we have any Texaco's left, but they're part of Chevron (ex-Std Oil of California) if we do.
It's as bad as the phone mess when the phone companies were allowed to get back together again. Now we have SBC (ex-Southwestern Bell) which has taken over Ameritech (ex-Illinois, Indiana, etc Bell).
And it's as bad as the radio station mess. We had a favorite station in Chicago, that went over to Jack (off) FM. Now they are going to bring the old format back but make us buy new radios to listen to it! Make the kids buy the new stuff. You don't know Jack! There used to be two solid rules in Radio Broadcasting:
Now Jack FM owns hundreds. . . . . And they're splooging all over my FM band. I'm going back to Oldies 1690 AM. And 740 Toronto when I can hear them over WJR Detroit (760). And The Drive, when they don't get into Disco Inferno mode. I don't hardly use my FM band anymore . . . .
Holy cow, where do you live? Texas? It's 2.909 outside Chicago and probably throughout most of the state. It hit 3.19 here for one day, then went to 2.999 and stayed there for quite a while. It's dropping a penny every other day or so.
Charles of Kankakee
That's just wrong, dammit LOL
Natalie
Gawd, T - this is a rather testy reply, coming from you. Why insult the entire NG?
Natalie
Gas stations sell a commodity. If they didn't move in lock-step, they wouldn't sell any gas.
plus their suppliers most likely move in lock-step as the price of oil is a constant.
Bush doesn't control the price of oil, nor do big oil companies. To affect oil prices big oil companies would have to hold back oil. There's no evidence that they do so. It's supply and demand 101. Old Western fields produce less and less every year. Middle Eastern fields are producing flat out, whereas they used to have a cartel (OPEC) specifically to limit production. Demand goes up 2-3% every year, especially with China and India modernizing. Plus speculators realzing all of the above and buying for investment/speculation.
It really has nothing to do with "big oil" or "bush".
As for gas futures and gas prices, there's very little profit in marketing gas. So that $1.00 figure is probably 5 cents transporation,
5 cents profit and 90 cents taxes.The real change also ( in addition to higher oil prices) is that refiners used to make 10 cents a gallon refining oil, but because there have been no new refineries in the US in 20 years, there is now a refinery constraint and they make more like 30 cents a gallon refining it. With hurricane Katrina knocking out 10% of US refineries that margin of 30 cents went higher. Add to that regional shortages caused by pipelines that were out of commission (finished product pipelines, not gulf of mexico pipelines which are still out) and you had a bidding war on the part of sellers who were desperate to get any gas. The pipelines were fixed and most of the dip you saw was due to that.
"Charles @ Kankakee" wrote in news:ScCdnTmocLN4rrfenZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
They up *and down* that way if you'll notice.
And they go up and down together because there isn't much margin in gas prices. If margins were higher, you'd find some stations willing to take less margin in order to make it up in volume. Unfortunately, this HAS happened over the decades to the point where all the profit's been kicked out of the product for everybody, so there's not much wiggle room left. A few pennies separates profit and loss, and nobody wants to lose, so you react quickly to your costs.
Gas is a commodity, it's a common market across North America, and it's all the same stuff. Everybody's costs are much the same.
It is true that the oil companies have been slow to increase capacity and production, but this may have more to do with the allocation of money towards that end. I think they're banking what they can until the party ends and the markets beat the price back down again (2% more net is a lot of dough). And it *always* goes back down.
Up 'til the recent runup in prices, oil company margins were about 8%, better than your average grocery store (3%), but worse than some other industries. In investments, 10%-15% margins are considered good.
Among other things, it is impossible to start a new oil company, as it's impossible to get the necessary permits and environmental and zoning clearances. This alone keeps new firms out and gives the incumbents a captive audience.
The phone companies, like your banking system, are the product of decades of very heavy regulation that prevented any sort of competition. They are still heavily regulated, with serious restrictions on the entry of new players.
Those Baby Bells still have a governmental monopoly on the "last mile", which means they ultimately control everything.
It is not fair at all to compare the phone or radio station fiascos to oil.
Also a product of regulation. You cannot (and have not ever been able to) just start up a station anytime you want. You have to get a permit from the FCC. This means everybody's radio stations are as bland as they think the FCC will like.
Deregulate radio, with the FCC serving only as a registration and arbitration body that *only* allocates spectrum, and you'll see choice improve.
"Wickeddoll®" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.evilcabal.org:
Yeah, you're right.
How about, "Not that certain members of this group have ever actually read a book".
Is that better?
Dude, I've read lots of books. I used to read history books for fun. Unfortonately, most of my reading now is trying to keep up with WinDoze. . . .
Charles of Kankakee
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