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Its happened. I paid $4 for a gallon of gas today!

Started by action1kid,

161 posts in this topic

jools&jim

jools&jim

Posted
Posted

Among other reasons, crude oil is a traded commodity. Demand (at the gas pump and elsewhere) is obviously one factor, but so is speculation (or lack thereof) relative to the health of the world economy.

 

I'm no economist and don't pretend to understand all this stuff, but when investors start selling stuff off (commodities, securities, etc.), the available supply of the commodity increases on the market, and the value declines...

 

Or at least that's what I remember from Trading Places... :insane:

 

08_TradingPlaces_BD.jpg

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bronzilla

bronzilla

Posted
Posted

Well I dont see demand cut in half yet....So I dont buy it.

But I never bought into the Peak Oil explanation for the hikes in oil, the last few years!

I liken the Oil cartel to the Diamond Cartel. Controlled supply, controlled price. most people dont realize Rubies are far Scarcer than Diamonds, in fact many "semi precious stones" are. But Diamonds are far more expensive. Try to Get a lady to Get as excited over a ruby like she will for a Diamond!! The Diamond Cartel has controlled pricing for years by buying and or stealing Mines, not allowing Competition through some pretty horrible means! And finally allowing only a small portion of supply to hit the market at a time. All the while Marketing them through Movies TV and Ads telling us Diamonds are Forever ,Diamonds are a girls best Freind and Diamonds are a scarce commodity!! RUBBISH!!! I have been telling my Wife this for years...she still wants the Diamonds!

It is rarely about reality on this planet and more about how we are programmed and manipulated to think and behave in a certain way thru indoctrination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

END OF RANT!!!!!!!

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Monstro

Monstro

Posted
Posted
:bump:

 

So Gene, what is your expert opinion on why it dropped so drastically? People stopped hedging against the U.S. Dollar? If that's not the correct term please be gentle I'm no financial person. But what you say about the market setting the price is obviously the case.

 

This is a good read too...

 

It's a combination of two things: (1) the global recession has cut back demand drastically (demand in the U.S. alone has dropped off by 2 million barrels of crude oil a day) at a time when supplies are plentiful and (2) we've seen the unwinding of speculative positions by hedge funds, prop trading desks, etc., as well as a reduction (maybe even a reversal of; I haven't seen the recent figures) in the amount of money flowing into commodity index strategies. These speculative forces exacerbated the price trend when the fundamentals were good and now are doing the same in the opposite direction. :eek:

 

One thing that should now be abundantly clear, as you said, is that the market sets prices, not the oil companies. Anyone who still believes the latter (which is pure propaganda and misinformation), despite the fact that prices are set on global exchanges and despite the fact that the oil companies have been powerless to stop a nearly $100/bbl. slide in the price of oil and have been accepting negative profit margins in gasoline refining for most of this quarter, is simply :screwy:

 

so if there weren't only a few major oil companies running the whole thing prices wouldn't drop?

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NewWorldOrder

NewWorldOrder

Posted
Posted

The speculative bubble has popped! :headbang:

 

The prices should stay low becaause even though we can drive cheap again the problem is when we get there we still dont have any money to spend.

 

As long as we conserve our driving that should insure affordable prices hopefully over time.

 

In a rant I really hope people have seen what a crock of :censored: gas prices are at over 3.00-4.00 a gallon and know how badly we were extorted and next time we act in a manner more aggressive if that happens agains.

 

Any smart- :censored: economist who can tell me that over a $100 drop in the price of oil and a 60% decrease in the average prices per pump price is attributed to natural macro/micro factors needs to stop playing and just fess up that we got hosed big time.

 

To have that big of spike and decline in both direction can only be attributed to one thing GREED and now that the bubble of greed has popped we see the results.

 

Maybe our New President wont be in bed with the Oil companies. :gossip:

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cd4ever

cd4ever

Posted
Posted
Well I dont see demand cut in half yet....So I dont buy it.

But I never bought into the Peak Oil explanation for the hikes in oil, the last few years!

I liken the Oil cartel to the Diamond Cartel. Controlled supply, controlled price. most people dont realize Rubies are far Scarcer than Diamonds, in fact many "semi precious stones" are. But Diamonds are far more expensive. Try to Get a lady to Get as excited over a ruby like she will for a Diamond!! The Diamond Cartel has controlled pricing for years by buying and or stealing Mines, not allowing Competition through some pretty horrible means! And finally allowing only a small portion of supply to hit the market at a time. All the while Marketing them through Movies TV and Ads telling us Diamonds are Forever ,Diamonds are a girls best Freind and Diamonds are a scarce commodity!! RUBBISH!!! I have been telling my Wife this for years...she still wants the Diamonds!

It is rarely about reality on this planet and more about how we are programmed and manipulated to think and behave in a certain way thru indoctrination.

Yep.
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bronzilla

bronzilla

Posted
Posted
Among other reasons, crude oil is a traded commodity. Demand (at the gas pump and elsewhere) is obviously one factor, but so is speculation (or lack thereof) relative to the health of the world economy.

 

I'm no economist and don't pretend to understand all this stuff, but when investors start selling stuff off (commodities, securities, etc.), the available supply of the commodity increases on the market, and the value declines...

 

Or at least that's what I remember from Trading Places... :insane:

 

08_TradingPlaces_BD.jpg

Great movie! Even better Director!

Arron Russo did some Phenominal Documentary work on the Fed, Prior to his Death Google him!!

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DrWatson

DrWatson

Posted
Posted
Price in Toronto today = 77.7 cents a litre

Now what the hell does that mean.

 

 

The American gallon is equivalent to 3.786 litres

 

3.786 litres = $2.94 CAN

 

$2.94 CAN = Approx. $2.32 US

 

 

:acclaim:

Wow, you guys are still getting shafted. :eek:

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piper

piper

Posted
Posted
Price in Toronto today = 77.7 cents a litre

Now what the hell does that mean.

 

 

The American gallon is equivalent to 3.786 litres

 

3.786 litres = $2.94 CAN

 

$2.94 CAN = Approx. $2.32 US

 

 

:acclaim:

Wow, you guys are still getting shafted. :eek:

 

We were paying over $1.35 per litre CAD a few weeks ago.

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

Well I dont see demand cut in half yet....So I dont buy it.

***********************

 

i don't think the price/demand for oil is so proportionate, the price is pretty elastic i guess (i forget what applies to what..elastic, inelastic demand curve, etc.). it's that extra 10% of demand or whatever that sent things surging. uhg...

 

gas really hasn't gone too low here...like $2.20 a gallon, although out on long island i paid $2.07.

 

i'm happy to be paying less and our economy doesn't need to have that $4 gallon drain, but for the medium and short term I hope this doesn't send us back to our old fuel guzzling ways and that detroit, et al. still strive toward more and more efficient cars. I HOPE the U.S. consumer realizes that this could be temporary and prices might be manipulated back up to $3-$4 a gallon so now is not the time to buy a 10 MPG SUV, even if it would help detroit short-term. OPEC is a cartel and at $1.50 gallon gas it is a lot easier to pressure members to cut back production by a lot. The OPEC countries are getting hurt at these elvels. But it does seem like at these prices electric cars hitting the market in 2009/2010 might not be such a panacea.

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