[Armageddon]

The oil companies have every reason to do whatever they can to keep oil at this price. Economies can still grow ( barely ) with $60.00 oil. Anything higher will destroy demand and also economic growth. This is the reason why I think the prices are being manipulated by TPTB. We are at or slightly passed PO, so I think they are trying to milk every penny they can before the collapse. This is another reason why Bush and Cheney do not care about the trade imbalance, the debt, and constant running of the printing presses. Their actions are showing a collapse is about to happen, like a drunken binge by an alcoholic. This is the only logical explaination why oil isn't above 80.00 right now.

[Tanada]

Well three months later and while things are not rosey Crude is still not the main problem, Gasoline is. The fact is if refineries were preforming as TPTB had hoped (and lets be honest I was hoping for it as well) then gasoline would still be the same retail price because Oil would be inthe $80.00 range instead of $70.00 as it currently is. Only the glut of unrefined oil is keeping the price from its previous highs.