[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', 'A')re "Americans" the only ones speculating on oil? I don't think so.

joeltrout

[UncoveringTruths]

I've got a feeling that just changing a law to prevent the purchase of oil on the global markets will not be as easy as the lawmakers think. It's not like flipping a switch. Aren't some folks already out on a limb in foriegn future markets? How would they renogatiate the delivery sometime in the future to an American market if the purchases have already been made.

Please excuse my ingnorance on this issue.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UncoveringTruths', 'I')'ve got a feeling that just changing a law to prevent the purchase of oil on the global markets will not be as easy as the lawmakers think. It's not like flipping a switch. Aren't some folks already out on a limb in foriegn future markets? How would they renogatiate the delivery sometime in the future to an American market if the purchases have already been made.

Please excuse my ingnorance on this issue.

[joeltrout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
Oil is so over. I give almost the entire rotting complex 10 years and would avoid it like the plague, as an investor. Many of the masters of that greasy universe, and all the little dumbass investors are going to get burned. As a Canadian, I can see it destroying half of our population's retirement funds. Too bad.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
Oil is so over. I give almost the entire rotting complex 10 years and would avoid it like the plague, as an investor. Many of the masters of that greasy universe, and all the little dumbass investors are going to get burned. As a Canadian, I can see it destroying half of our population's retirement funds. Too bad.

[dbruning]

"They try to maneuver themselves into a position where there are no checks and balances against them. This is what you are seeing now. Government is the only entity large enough to take them on. "

Problem is Government these days = Pirates that have successfully maneuvered themselves into a position where there are no checks and balances against them.

Just one more nail in the coffin.

ARRRRR Matey! Welcome aboard, we see you "won" the election. Now hold still while we fix you up with your eyepatch and parrot.

[joeltrout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
') Just before you get the signal, as to which alternative is the best bet, insiders in the corporate elite will, and pile on to the new new thing, insuring oil price will eventually drop. May take 10 years.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') absolutely believe in peak oil and think that a price in the mid eighties reflects that. Further, I think even if the price rises no further, the entire social focus will shift towards alternatives, because 4.00 per gal gasoline, is onerous for many.

[jlw61]

I love the socialist attitudes.

Blame America. Control the markets. Drive out speculators. Capitalism is bad. Corporations are evil. We will conquer the world.

Yawn.

The fundamental problem with the oil market is that 95% of the oil is controlled by governments. Most of these governments are anything but lovers of freedom and capitalists. They don't love capitalism but they do love the wealth and technology provided by capitalism. Sadly, this is the very same hypocritical thinking that drives so many socialist.

With 95% of the oil being nationalized, the oil market does not run on the free market paradigm but is a oligopoly market. Further complicating the matter is that open competition has been crushed by the specter of depletion of the resource.

If there is a conspiracy going on, it is not with the oil majors unless it is in conjunction with their governments and/or they truly believe they can keep the knowledge hidden forever. Can you imagine what would happen if it could be proved that Exxon was manipulating the oil prices higher? The American public would go absolutely ape-shit and a number of Exxon executives would likely spend time in jail and lose their assets.

Will there be a move towards socialism/communism in America when TSHTF? If there is it will be because the soft-headed sheeple will run toward anyone promising to fix the problem. The sheeple do not think, do not consider, do not care about anything beyond their fat asses and soft sofas. When the time comes, there will be a lot of sheeple running to anyone promising salvation in without asking a single question.

Those who stand back and do nothing will be as guilty as the evil bastards promising salvation in exchange for civil liberites. It is the same story that is told over and over and who knows, perhaps this time America will prove too tough of a nut to crack. If not, then when the sheeple are rounded up, the wolves will simply take off their lambskins and the sheeple will have the government they deserve; darkness will descend upon the world and everyone will be united in misery.

Except, of course, for the wolves who will feast like never before.

[smiley]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')roblem is Government these days = Pirates that have successfully maneuvered themselves into a position where there are no checks and balances against them.

[Ferretlover]

Who will actually benefit from this law? In the short-term? In the long-term?
Could this influence other countries not to invest in the US?

[Revi]

I don't think the people who proposed this law have any idea how the market works. Who really knows? I think they got a lot of mail from their constituents demanding some action on speculators, and they wrote up this law and are now trying to pass it.

No other reason.

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'I') don't think the people who proposed this law have any idea how the market works. Who really knows? I think they got a lot of mail from their constituents demanding some action on speculators, and they wrote up this law and are now trying to pass it.

No other reason.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'O')ne more thing...Free marketeers are enthrall to the idea of letting markets function without outside interferance, and can make several disingenuous arguments to support their case.

Free markets, completely outside of a "greater good" philosophy become more like a high seas where pirates prevail, than the good ship lollipop, skippered by Andrew Carnegie, enriching all those who adopt the "right attitude."

Pretty soon the pirates own, or at least, commandeer all of the food and energy, and to hell with everyone else. They try to maneuver themselves into a position where there are no checks and balances against them. This is what you are seeing now. Government is the only entity large enough to take them on.

But don't take my word for it, just keep believing what you believe until you become committed hare core communists after the shtf. Fundamentalists usually swing from one extreme to the other.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')hey really don't get it do they? I was wondering what Hillary was talking about when she proposed some of the crazy stuff she's thinking about. Fortunately Obama seems a little smarter.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', 'A')re "Americans" the only ones speculating on oil? I don't think so.

joeltrout

[mmasters]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jlw61', 'T')he fundamental problem with the oil market is that 95% of the oil is controlled by governments.

[RdSnt]

I believe the phenomenon of the oil price spike is much more complicated and opaque than it seems in public.
Consider all the phantom money that has been generated by the american mortgage scam. The trillions of dollars of paper dollars that are floating around without a home.
This money can't be redeemed for cash, it doesn't actually have any tangible asset to back it up.
We've seen these "ledger_demain" amounts re-multiply with phantom returns, re-chopped into even newer investment vehicles, shift around like the ultimate ponzi scheme it really is.
Since the "investments" can't be redeemed for real money, it is being shifted to speculative investments in oil, thus driving up the price of oil.

You see, the phantom money can't be shifted into gold or silver assets because of the special nature of those commodities. They are "real" money and you need proof that you funds are equally as real as the gold or silver.
Oil on the other had is a contract for something that hasn't been extracted yet. Perhaps you can think of it as a real-time contract, in that the oil is potentially going to be pulled from the ground in the very near future. It is also going to be consumed right away, thus disappearing from the market. Gold doesn't disappear, very, very little of it is consumed and removed from the market. For the most part it is stored, thus deriving a tangible value that is unlike almost any other commodity.
You can't "launder" derived, paper money through gold, since the gold doesn't disappear.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bill Clinton, July 13, 2006', 'I') was reading a book the other day by a guy just bashing the living hell out of me, saying that he was certain the CIA briefed me once a week on how America was running out of oil and I did nothing serious about it. Of course he ignored what we tried to do and got our brains beat out doing.