OT: An open letter to the oil companies

Dear Exxon/Mobil, BP, et. al.

Well, you've done it. In your greedy push to get permanent 3 dollar a gallon gas, you've upset the balance of the economy that has worked so well since about 1982. You've basically put an end to the real estate bubble, put a pretty good spike in food prices, and just about guaranteed that Hillary will win in 2008. But be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.

Charles of Schaumburg

Reply to
n5hsr
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The oil companies profit margins are not as great as they sound... but regardless, what is wrong with gas prices being 3 dollars a gallon? In fact, why arent they 5 dollars a gallon?

They should be high, and we should be using less.

Reply to
GoMavs

Doesn't matter what the price is. The problem is that the money goes to finance terrorists. There is no denying this.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

In message news:05OdnevV68h0bULbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com, n5hsr sprach forth the following:

Oil has nothing to do with real estate.

Food prices are up because (a) the US has an antiquated sugar program that limits sugar production and increases domestic sugar prices; leading to (b) an over-reliance on corn as an alternative to sugar as a sweetener (high fructose corn syrup); which is being interrupted by (c) government subsidies to corn growers to divert their crop away from the food supply and into ethanol production.

By contrast, ethanol from many other countries (Brazil, for example) comes from sugar cane. So corrupt US policies for the benefit of the monied few are negatively impacting BOTH food AND fuel prices.

Reply to
Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute

In message news:FySDi.15376$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny, JoeSpareBedroom sprach forth the following:

Not if we drill in ANWR. When did you last lobby your congresscreeps to support ANWR drilling?

Reply to
Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute

The price of gas is based on the price of crude oil. If you think you can buy crude oil and refine it into gas at a lower price than the existing oil companies, then you and your buddies (of which there are many millions who share your opinion) should start your own oil company (or buy an existing oil company and adjust the prices downward). Any public traded oil company is for sale on the NYSE or NASDAQ. Good Luck.

Reply to
Mark A

The only problem with food is the increasing number of obese people =)

Reply to
EdV

Who do you hate more?, Arab terrorist or the stock holders of military equipment?

Reply to
EdV

"n5hsr" wrote in news:05OdnevV68h0bULbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

You people just don't get it, do you? The oil companies /do not/ set oil or gas prices. Prices are determined on the commodity exchanges.

The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on the real estate bubble thing. See "How Credit Got So Easy And Why It's Tightening", by Greg Ip and Jon E. Hilsenrath, Aug7/07. The cuplrit? The government, not the oil companies.

The spike in food prices you can blame on the ethanol loonies.

The the GOP had better find somebody with actual ideas and convictions. Like maybe another Jefferson or Cleveland.

Reply to
Tegger

Our military equipment manufacturers are also funding terrorism, through "commissions" (bribes) paid to the Saudis involved in purchasing weaponry.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

To an extent, that needs to be changed. Granted, there are businesses connected with oil who use the exchanges to buy, sell or hedge. But, there are also what I call amateurs - people who do nothing but gamble on oil (and other commodities). These people often move as much money as the professionals, so they DO have a significant effect on prices.

If the price movements were based on physical reality (war, hurricanes, etc), this would be a rational system. But too often, price movements are based on nothing but fear and news stories which amount to absolutely nothing. We still pay for the wrong guesses, though.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:CgXDi.15394$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

To what? Central planning?

Prices are just a symptom, an indicator of the effects of various factors on the economy. A thermometer, if you will.

Attempting to affect the economy by monkeying with prices is like trying to cool your house by holding an ice cube against the bulb of your thermometer. All you do is distort the visible sign the thermometer is giving you.

99.9% of commodities trading is done by professional investors. You can call them "speculators" if you like, but they're still pros.

Commodities trading is a very low-margin, very high-volume business. You're making trades and contracts in the millions of dollars.

"Gambling" millions of dollars with other people's money is a sure way for "amateurs" to quickly bankrupt themselves, their employers and their investors, and I don't think there are too many people who are that suicidal.

Fundamentally, investments are guesses about the future. ANY investment more involved than a bank account is a guess. Nothing will change that fundamental truth.

Commodities trading is a guess about many things that may come to pass in the future. Things like political instability, regulatory and tax changes, the weather, and so on.

Traders act on the "fear" of things like hurricanes and war, which are perfectly legitimate fears, since nobody knows what the future will bring.

Reply to
Tegger

Bullshit.

Crude is, yes. Gas prices, on the other hand, are set by the oil companies. Record profits are one of the things that prove it.

Not all food, no.

Reply to
Gary L. Burnore

that depends who you buy from...and how much you use

Reply to
GoMavs

If you have a choice, that's wonderful. In many cities, we have no choice.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

No. Eliminate people like you and I from this particular trading game. The people who accept trades could easily be tasked with assuring that their clients are actually involved professionally with the petroleum industry. Make this a requirement for keeping their licenses.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Gary L. Burnore wrote in news:fbpuoj$s4p$ snipped-for-privacy@blackhelicopter.databasix.com:

They'd sure like to, believe me. If they could, they'd be making more Microsoft-like margins (25%) instead of their current margins (10%).

Prior to Bush's war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the rise of Hugo Chavez and the unrest in Nigeria, the oil companies were making more like 7-8%.

The celebrated +20% rise in oil company profits is that gain from

7 or 8% to 10%.

They're not, actually. Go check out the commodities page of the Wall Street journal. Unleaded gasoline is there along with crude oil, wheat and the famous pork bellies.

The gas companies do set the PUMP price, but they have a floor they can't go below, which is mercantile exchange price. If they were to price below the exchange price, what would be the point? They might as well just sell all their stock on the exchange instead of operating retail stations.

Record profits are the result of traders bidding up prices as various threats to supply become evident. The fluctuations you see in the daily commodities reports (you do read those?) coincide with the perceived waxing and waning security of supply.

Much of it. Farmers are growing less of other crops to plant corn for ethanol. This makes them scarcer and thus more expensive. Non-corn animal feed has gone up for this reason, plus feed corn has gone up along with ethanol-bound corn prices.

Reply to
Tegger

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:sj%Di.15415$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

As I said earlier, people like you and me are not involved in commodities trading. It takes millions of dollars to be a commodities trader. Do you have millions? I don't.

Some guy sitting at home in his underwear playing on e*trade is going to be buying and selling penny stocks, not oil or gas. And losing money doing it, too.

It's very difficult to predict the future, you know.

If you really want to drive prices down, you can petition world governments to stop warring with each other and with their people.

Reply to
Tegger

Joey, care to re write your statement?

You call people idiots and can't write a simple sentence!

How stupid are you, Joey?

Reply to
Scott in Florida

I think you know what I meant. There *are* clients with enough money to fiddle with commodities, and they DO IT. They are NOT necessarily connected with the oil biz.

Got a broker? Ask his manager about this.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

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