Business As Usual

[SayOw]

Banks and oil companies got it made in the shade in America...

Full story here.

...several experts note that for all the rhetoric about punishing corporate crimes and helping victims of abuse, the banks have once again gotten away with a slap on the wrist and may end up benefiting most of all from the settlement.

[P562045]

A nice little summary is in order.
The 1% get $20,000,000,000
The 99% get $5,000,000,000
Yet to be determined $1,000,000,000.

In what we are discussing it does mention that about $300,000,000,000 was not enough before but less than 10 percent of this will make it all better now in an election year very interesting. And a person should not forget what we are discussing was in the trillions of dollars being lost by homeowners. So it appears to me that banks are getting another bailout. Business as usual indeed.

[P562045]

So we have Treasury Secretary Geithner trying to explain why we are having the highest gas prices this time of year ever.

Well reason number one is that what Mr. Geithner calls "sabre-rattling" by Iran.

Another reason focuses on Iran again and I will give the full quote of what Mr. Geithner said, "If Iran is successful in its nuclear ambitions, the world and oil markets and the global economy and the stability in the region would be in jeopardy,"

So are these the only two reasons why gas prices are going up. I would say it is much more complex than that. And I do find it rather interesting that we are blaming another country and what we are doing here in our own country has little to do with at least part of the reason why gas prices are so high.

And this is an excellent example of the news not telling the whole story but only part of the story. And in an election year how are people supposed to make informed decisions about such matters as picking a President when the news just pick any source is so slanted that is is very hard to make informed decisions by just following the news.

Story here

[SayOw]

Originally Posted by P562045

So are these the only two reasons why gas prices are going up. I would say it is much more complex than that. And I do find it rather interesting that we are blaming another country and what we are doing here in our own country has little to do with at least part of the reason why gas prices are so high.

Unfortunately gas prices will continue to rise simply because they can continue to raise the prices for no reason...which is what they are doing.

Anytime you hear their "reasons" for raising gas prices it isn't a reason at all...it's an excuse. And then every 3 months you hear about the record profits from these oil companies.

If oil companies truly passed along the costs to produce gasoline to the consumer, their profits should remain fairly consistent...but any look at that and a person realizes that they profit enormously each and every year...somehow able to overcome all the "expenses" they pass down to the consumer and end up making tons of cash....so very interesting how that works if you ask me.

[StockTrader]

I'd look more at people speculating about oil.

Anyway, I'm hoping E85 can become a decent alternative fuel after we move away from corn and over to wood + grass. Still, that would take prices that are at least 30% less than 88 octane gasoline.

Nick

[spoc22]

Let me give it a try. Basic economics says:
high demand+low supply=high prices.
This administration has done everything in its power to cut back on drilling, has prevented the recently suggested pipe line and continued the long standing NIMBY policies for new refineries.
There is more oil in Anwar than the entire middle east has pumped for all time but we can't get it because the area (that is too flippin' cold for anyone to visit in winter and a marsh the rest of the year) is pristine and Dems want to make sure it stays that way.

Also, here in sunny SoCal, the taxes on a gallon of gasoline is 5 times the profit made by the oil companies and rather than use the tax $$$ to repair our rapidly deteriorating freeways, we are using iot to build walls along side the freeways so the people who knowingly and of their own free will buy houses next to the freeways don't have to be bothered by freeway noises.

Bottom line: Stupidity = high prices.

[P562045]

Well supply and demand is part of this but not all of it. There are the speculators that "bet" something bad will happen and it eventually will and these speculators will make a nice little profit from whatever the event is such as why Iran is being talked about as one of the reasons gas prices are higher. And it is not just Iran other countries are involved as well. Venezuela is another example their leader is not in the best of health and he going through a second round of cancer treatments. Venezuela is around the top ten oil producers. Then there is Russia who can not even keep up with demand even though they on any given day can be the largest oil producer in the world. But this is only part of what is going on.

Then we have the various state gasoline taxes that can vary widely from state to state. And then there are the various regulations such as environmental concerns that may or not be good ideas. I am all for keeping the environment clean as can be but there needs to be a balance on what our needs are as well. A person has not heard the words energy independence in a while. This does several things. We are a rather stable country especially compared to other countries that are large oil producers. And producing our own energy will create jobs here and not just directly from the refining process. And plus there has to be some costs involved in transporting our oil from other countries. I am sure there are other reasons as well on why gas prices are higher. As I mentioned just the other day there are many different reasons why gas prices are the highest they have ever been for this time of year. Just so a person knows the federal gas taxes have not gone up in decades. And another reason to be quite frank about it is that very few people can make a ton of money from the various examples I have given including keeping the supply low for a period of time and then raising gas prices at the pump because of this very action.

[StockTrader]

Originally Posted by spoc22

Let me give it a try. Basic economics says:
high demand+low supply=high prices.
This administration has done everything in its power to cut back on drilling, has prevented the recently suggested pipe line and continued the long standing NIMBY policies for new refineries.
There is more oil in Anwar than the entire middle east has pumped for all time but we can't get it because the area (that is too flippin' cold for anyone to visit in winter and a marsh the rest of the year) is pristine and Dems want to make sure it stays that way.

Also, here in sunny SoCal, the taxes on a gallon of gasoline is 5 times the profit made by the oil companies and rather than use the tax $$$ to repair our rapidly deteriorating freeways, we are using iot to build walls along side the freeways so the people who knowingly and of their own free will buy houses next to the freeways don't have to be bothered by freeway noises.

Bottom line: Stupidity = high prices.

SPOC! This has to be your first post in what ... over a year? Welcome back

[rich76]

Originally Posted by StockTrader

SPOC! This has to be your first post in what ... over a year? Welcome back

sure do wish he had more time to spend here.........

[SayOw]

Originally Posted by spoc22

Let me give it a try. Basic economics says:
high demand+low supply=high prices.

This is true, but not in the case of oil.

America has taken strides to reduce its consumption of oil and at the same time production, within the states, is at an all time high.

The price continues to rise for one reason and only one reason, for profit. If you don't believe me, take a look at any of the big oil companies balance sheets from last year, the year before and the year before. I project this year, if gas continues to go up, which, by all indications it will, oil companies will break their previous record high profits they got last year and the year before and the year before, etc...

Try and blame anyone or anything, but the bottom line is that greed is the only factor determining the price of gas in America. And regardless if Republican or Democrat, they both are more than happy to meet with the big oil folks on a golf outing to collect a nice check for reelection...

[P562045]

Well maybe we can have a bi-weekly news story that blames Iran for higher gas prices.

A person may want to ask themselves why do we still get some of our oil from the Middle East. And what percentage of our oil do we still get from that region.

I would love to hear the yammering from both major political parties.

Let me take a wild guess. We must protect the environment no matter what.

We need to drill for more oil here and of course the mantra drill baby drill.

And sadly I do not have the answer to these very rhetorical responses I just gave when it comes to what we really should really be doing when it comes the price of oil. Because as I have mentioned several times before gas which is used as an energy source to power our motor vehicles is not even close to the only thing we use the byproducts of the oil refining process for. Such things as plastics, lubricants to keep machines running, and even asphalt are just some of the things that come from the oil refining process.

Another blame Iran for higher gas prices news story

[SayOw]

Hurricane season is about to fire up, so they will switch excuses in a few weeks for the summer season...

Interesting...high gas prices now because of Iran doing nothing but lip service (which is normal), but they are an overseas producer of oil.

Then, in a few months the mere threat of a hurricane will raise prices again, which is for domestic oil production.

It's always win-win for big oil. And again, it isn't even an actual event that causes prices to go up (and never come down) it's simply the mention of a possible threat many months away that will send gas prices up....and again, that will never decrease regardless of the event occurred or not.

BP is projecting a 50% increase in cash flow by 2014, which includes paying off the deepwater horizon oil spill of last year...right now, by their own reports, they have reached $22 BILLION in operating cash right now which is a 60% increase from just 2010...so that means they have accumulated over $12 BILLION in just excess cash in the past 2 years...yep, times are tough for them...

I am still shocked and stunned that people will still buy into the government and big oil's lies about gas prices....but they are just passing the cost down to the consumers... LIE NUMBER 1!

[SayOw]

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline rose for the 10th straight day on Monday to $3.842. That is now only about 6.6% below the record high of $4.114 from July 2008.

The average price rose by four-tenths of a penny, according to the survey of gas stations conducted for the motorist group AAA. Gas prices are now up more than 17% this year.

Full Story Here.

[P562045]

Well it took less than a week to try to blame Iran yet again.

Our economy which at the present moment in time is Wall street in New York is going so well that people have been saving so much money now they feel comfortable and are starting to spend money again that has been saved.

And one last thing to mention. We used some of our strategic oil reserve I think it was last July and prices temporarily went down for about a month which just happens to be about the amount of oil we have our strategic oil reserve. Hopefully we will not need to be doing such things as getting out of Afghanistan sooner rather than latter as one example.

[SayOw]

Originally Posted by SayOw

This is true, but not in the case of oil.

America has taken strides to reduce its consumption of oil and at the same time production, within the states, is at an all time high.

The price continues to rise for one reason and only one reason, for profit. If you don't believe me, take a look at any of the big oil companies balance sheets from last year, the year before and the year before. I project this year, if gas continues to go up, which, by all indications it will, oil companies will break their previous record high profits they got last year and the year before and the year before, etc...

Try and blame anyone or anything, but the bottom line is that greed is the only factor determining the price of gas in America. And regardless if Republican or Democrat, they both are more than happy to meet with the big oil folks on a golf outing to collect a nice check for reelection...

Well, lookey lookey ... here's an article verifying exactly what I have been claiming for some time...that America is producing more oil but prices continue to rise...

A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.

If more domestic oil drilling worked as politicians say, you’d now be paying about $2 a gallon for gasoline. Instead, you’re paying the highest prices ever for March.