The US is not a free market. If it were Bear Stearn would be bankrupt. The US govt has a tremendous amount of power. Screw suing these people we just go take their oil. Its time the CIA did a couple of coups and got us some leader who will sell us cheap oil
the price or the supply? you don't seem like the type of person to claim opec is the boogeyman of oil production.
The supply is (mostly) controlled by a cartel - not the price. The price has nearly doubled in the last year despite production not changing much. OPEC didn't cause those prices to double - the market, both real and speculative, did.
wow the way you have twisted what I said in the past it seems odd you have such a high standard of my opinion (acutually I am surprised I am not on your ignore list)
but with a free market the high selling price would cause a similar increase in production because the higher the price the more willing sellers are to sell. This would reduce the price.
Sorry - I should have been more clear. I was more focused on the demand side of the equation. What you say is certainly true, though part of it depends on if the seller(s) believe the higher price is sustainable or a bubble, and how difficult/expensive it is to increase production. This article suggests that OPEC is functioning at pretty close to full capacity: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722397,00.html . Also, only half the supply is controlled by OPEC countries, so other individual countries could also choose to increase production, but none of them seem to be doing so in any substantive way. It may be that the infrastructure isn't there. But regardless, it's certainly true that the supply doesn't necessarily work like a free market. I was more thinking the demand side. Unless the US were able to take over and substantially increase production, we couldn't simply take over and sell the oil for less.
These are sovereign countries whose economies depend on oil; and that were minerally, financially and, in some cases, politically gang-raped by the West pre-OPEC. If there were any real justice, we'd be paying $20 a gallon and these countries would own every aspect of the fuel supply chain: no Exxons or BPs racking up $30 billion in shipping fees.
I honestly thought this was an Onion article when I read the title. Then I realized this was the D&D.
i wasn't trying to twist what you said, i just took that as a negative comment towards opec who i think is being unfairly blamed for the run up in prices. I don't think they can do much about supply at this point.
So many Will Rogers quotes: "And the thing about my jokes is, they don't hurt anybody. You can take 'em or leave 'em - you can say they're funny or they're terrible or they're good, or whatever, but you can just pass 'em by. But with Congress, every time they make a joke, it's a law! And every time they make a law, it's a joke!" "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." "If I studied all my life, I couldn't think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of Congress." "Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?"
Horse crap, those companies set those refineries up, invested millions and in many cases they had their stuff nationalized. Those countries that were gang-raped as you say were a bunch of nomadic tribes people living in tents......and their borders were drawn up by England and France.....so much for sovereign countries...eh? The only thing holding them together, is the oil, take that away and they would break up into little sects or clans so fast your head would spin. DD
