[AirlinePilot]

Alright, what the F@&# is happening on this dicked up planet?

I'm half being funny and half pissed off and frustrated. It seems to me that the price of crude (and gasoline) is not connected to anything resembling reason, intelligence, or reality.

Its going down today even while the situation in Iran is obviusly getting worse!

I did not believe before that there was anything going on other than a world market driven price model. Now I'm just not so sure. How can the price of crude remain steady at all for any length of time when the mainstream media is beginning to show signs of awakening to PO? How can the price remain stable with a madman loose in Iran? How is it that succesfult attacks on infrastructure all around the mideast are going literally unnoticed? How can anyone with the ability to do even limited research come up with the fact that all is going well and the economy is handling increased energy costs with ease?

I just dont get it. I am finding it hard to believe that with data showing reduction in reserves, possible peaking in several large producer states and the political unrest, that the price isnt just skyrocketing.

For cryin out loud, the Muslim world is coming apart at the seems because they can't take a few cartoons!

I have this sneaking hunch that its all a huge house of cards and when it happens its going to be very big and very bad. My doomerosity index is getting higher with each week.

Just had to get that off my chest, my industry is spiralling out of control partly due to high fuel costs, the auto industry is also in a huge slide, what else does it take before folks wake up and smell the crap smacking into the fan?

[Wildwell]

It's like the Wizard of Oz, there's man behind the curtain pushing all the buttons.

[Raxozanne]

I am left scratching my head too and I think a few people are trying to make sense what is going on as there is no real reason for such a drop in oil prices and alot of reason for an increase. I am wondering if people are profit taking, I dunno, I am beginning to suspect that commodities market is a bit like wonderland, no one knows what's going on and everything behaves contrary to logic.

[AmericanEmpire]

Because there is no such thing as peak oil.

[backstop]

Not wishing to imply that the pricing of oil is either remotely sane or even marginally honest,

I wonder if there's news of significant "demand destruction" (Indonesia, Bangladesh, S.Africa - plus who ?) that has yet to break -

or whether the entirely unprecedented Saudi rant about the immorality of developing
"expensive alternatives to oil that will prevent poor countries lifting themselves out of poverty"
has some covert accompanying message that the OPEC oil spigot will be opened significantly ?

regards,

Backstop

[elroy]

I was wondering the same thing. I saw in another post that gold went down quite a bit, oil went down as well.. I don't get it, and I don't get much of economy anyway so this is all the more puzzling.

[Eli]

I think we (those who know about PO) are looking too closely at things.

We are just seeing volatility in the market what has not changed is the long term trend up.

Pilot I think you hit the nail on the head when this thing breaks it is going to break big. The whole thing is going to come crashing down around our heads and it is going to be the worst financial and political upheaval the world will likely ever see.

War with Iran and oil will be at 130. Chinese cash in their US debt and the dollar is worthless. The housing bubble is popping and the US consumer is tapped out. There is no reason for your kids to go to college to become an engineer because all those jobs have been shipped off to India. And he can’t even get a job in a factory to make widgets because he does want to move to China. Oh and lets not forget global warming.

[pup55]

It always drops when someone from the Saudi oil ministry makes a public statement. Today's statement was "oil is about $10 overpriced".

My theory is that at or near the same time, they deliberately dump a lot of crude on the market themselves whenever they make a statement like this. This causes everyone to think that they have calmed the market, and all is well. As long as they sell 15% of the world's oil they will be able to do this.

Feel free to track this if you want.

[Eotyrant]

Well, to give you a rather more hopeful tale, my stepdad (who knows little about peak oil, though I keep meaning to lend The End of Suburbia to him) also expresses concerns about the waste of fuel and its finite reserves.

On its own, of course, this is useless, but I do get the impression that, In the UK at least, more people than you'd think have concerns about our societies' inefficiency. They may not understand the full consequences of this, but at least they understand the underlying problem.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ElijahJones', 'g')oods have to get more expensive. Goods get more expensive and then wages have to increase putting downward presure on the dollar, so the fed needs to raise rates a little more. In the end the dollar is being led to a very sharp precipice. I think this process is called deflation.

[backstop]

Alternatively, maybe some US special forces staff sergeant in Iraq
has pocketed the loot that was supposed to pay the insurgents for this month's oil-pipeline hits,
so Iraqi oil exports have unfortunately risen, thus inflating the cushion and suppressing prices . . .


The above is just one example of a Cocked-Up Conspiracy Theory.

regards,

Backstop

[Free]

God you really live behind the moon, don't you? You all missed it, PO-doomerosity is debunked:



"Energyproblem solved: Heating with books"

("Titanic-Magazine" is the German branch of "PO-debunked")

[threadbear]

There will be no war with Iran.

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

I think it will stay like this until idiot traders realize the oil fields have had it, then we'll have had it. No idea when that will be but no longer than 10 years I'd say.


There will be no war with Iran.

A ground war? No you're probably right, but air strikes could well be on the cards.

[dbarberic]

Yes – I do not get it either. Even things that are traditional “flight to safety” investments (gold/commodities) got hammered yesterday too. Everything is down. I could not find anything that was actually up.

The only explanation that I could find that might make sense, is a discussion that was on the last weekly broadcast of Financial Sense Online. Jim Puplava discussed that he believed that there is a risk that central banks will target and beat down the prices of assets (gold/commodities/etc) in order to make an argument that we are in deflation. This will give the Fed the excuse to start what Jim calls “the next great inflation”.

If you follow GATA (http://www.gata.org), I guess it is possible that this could be a concentrated and concerted effort to knock down prices. Only time will tell. If this continues over a period of time (days to weeks), then something is going on.

[frankthetank]

I think the FED will keep raising rates higher then most think, keeping people attracted to el greeno because of higher rates of return. This will go on until Bernake boards the helicopter filled with freshly printed C notes.

Airline~Whats your favorite plane to fly? or wait, doesn't the plane do the flying for you???

[AirlinePilot]

My favorite airliner type would be the 757, its a real sportscar.

The best aircraft I have ever flown would be the mighty F-18 Hornet. When you climb into that machine it's as if it becomes an extension of yourself. You become one with the aircraft. What it can do, you can do. It's nothing short of an awe inspiring experience.