rkskeet said:
Toranodo, what you fail to say with your economic hypothesis is why oil has gone up when there is no real DEMAND to warrant it being in SHORT supply.. In fact there are tankers off shore housing CRUDE because it CANNOT be consumed FAST enough... The DEMAND is far lower than supply.. Yet, the price continues to go up..
You are focusing only on the fundamentals for oil, but ignoring the fundamentals for dollars. For the last year the supply of dollars has been increasing at an exponential rate. Money is not only a medium of exchange, but it is a store of value. If the supply of something, including dollars, increases faster than the demand, then the price of that thing drops relative to other goods. Oil is a hard commodity, dollars are a soft commodity, and right now a lot of people would rather hold oil instead of dollars.
It does not matter how full the tanks are at the terminals, or how many supertankers are sitting offshore, or even how weak demand is currently. Right now the increasing price of oil is 100% caused by fear that the dollar will keep dropping in value.
In the END it is because those holding the PURSE strings can charge whatever they want but it is a shame to do so when there is no true shortage of product.. Shortages or percieved shortages are CONTRIVED.. I do not believe that they are natural.. GOUGING has a meaning in my and I am sure may peoples pocketbook. That truely relates and has meaning in the publics everday economic evei if you are of another opinion...
I guess we are just going to agree to disagree on this. You seem to think that there is someone or some organization out there who controls the oil market, who can turn it on or off whenever they like. This is incorrect, as was proven in the early 1980s when OPEC was unable to prevent crude from falling to <$10/barrel from $30 or even higher. If someone controls the oil market, someone who pushed crude to $147 in July 2008, why were they unable to keep it from dropping to ~$30 back in Feb-March 2009?
A discussion of the meaning or lack of meaning of the term "gouging" will have to wait for another time.
Oh, I do agree that Obama's policies are taking this country on the wrong track... If enacted, thay will greatly stunt and or harm the natural growth of this great country!!!!
It does not matter if they are enacted, just the fear that they MIGHT be enacted has already greatly harmed the American economy.