The Jetfuel Conspiracy

[vetteracer]

Interesting article in Business Week. Here are my capsulated thoughts.

As the price of Jetfuel and other distillates (heating and diesel fuel) continue to grow faster than gasoline, you have to ask why? The author believes speculation is behind most of the price increase in oil, but says we are exporting 38% more distillites this year than we imported. That means our distillite refineries are sending the finished product overseas where prices are higher, thus creating an unnecessary shortage and skewing the already high price here in the good ol USA.

But of course that is just part of problem. The author says that the price of oil is being manipulated by a large contingent of thieves (backed by the US Gov't) that have every intention of letting the good people of this country pay the freight.

• In 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion (gee, I wonder if any OPEC countries have money in this?). Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too—even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalization.

• Goldman Sachs forecast on Mar. 7 that turbulence in the oil market could cause oil to spike as high as $200 a barrel. This flies in the face of all known information—but then again, Goldman Sachs is the world's biggest trader of energy derivatives, and its Goldman Sachs Commodities Index is a widely watched barometer of energy and commodities prices.

• Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation's refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined.

• Production is expected to increase by 3.3% in the second quarter, and by as much as 4.1% by the third quarter. The net result is that the U.S. daily buffer for oil production against demand, which was a paltry 1.5 million barrels as recently as 2005, is now up to 3 million barrels in excess capacity today.

"They see speculation in the market, I see decline in global inventories. I don't think this is a big surprise, that we've had a jump in price when there has been a decrease in crude inventories."— Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, Bloomberg News, Mar. 5, 2008

"It should be obvious to you all that the [gasoline] demand is outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up." — President George W. Bush, Associated Press, Mar. 5, 2008

Dick Cheney and his 40 thieves have every intention of putting as much money in the pockets of the oil industry and rich insiders before they are herded out of office at the end of 2008, as an administration that put this country in a hole it may never dig out of.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/apr2008/bw2008041_945564.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/lifesty...2_520796.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories_msnbc

Ever heard of the FUTURES market ???

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Flyfast,
You may be on to something

Seems like maybe it needs some profanity to make it appropriate for our "leaders".

 

[Soverytired]

Flyfast,
You may be on to something

Yeah, like a series of "5 Year Plans", perhaps?

 

[IronCityBlue]

There is simply no excuse for single digit consumption growth correlating with a 1000% price increase during that same time period. Lowecur is right, these speculator scum bags are 80% responsibile. The other 20% being half dollar weakness and half global demand. Watching the talking heads on TV parrot "India and China, India and China...SQUAWK!!!!...polly want an India and China" you would think India and China have ramped up demand proportionate to the price run up.

Also the Goldman (and Deutch Bank, etc) pump and dump scam of the decade where they release "forecasts" of price directions that directly support their sudden, massive move to that sector. They (the US citizens among them) should be hung from the capital steps for treason and sedition.

Oil is down 2% today, because the price of crude is finally becoming an issue. The cyber investor boiler room speculator scum know they need a pull back for a while to lay low so they can keep playing the game of "higher highs and higher lows" with an interntional price run up.

 

[Bruno82]

So what can be done about it? I really don't hear anyone in gov't or any candidates talking about it.

 

[The Prussian]

And who's fault IS that?

Geography....look at the distances between their major cities, and ours.

 

[fly4surf]

Maybe someday somebody will invent a jet engine that runs on bio-fuel, invent a device to gain energy from the sun to power our houses and cars, put a big prop in the air to harness the wind and a few underwater turbines to reap the benifits of underwater currents.

I wish I lived in such a world.
Oh Wait.
Thanks politicians. Up yours.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Geography....look at the distances between their major cities, and ours.

Ok. What about efficient rail systems WITHIN the cities or the Metro areas? Don't see too many Expeditions, F150's, Hummers, Tahoes, etc. in Europe either. We CHOSE suburbia, as opposed to living close to work. Where I live, ANY initiative to bring rail to the suburbs is QUICKLY stricken down. Imagine the horrors that a rail would bring to your town!!uke: Not to mention, they all couldn't drive their F-150's (most of whom do not NEED them) at 90mph, 40 miles to work.

So your argument only KINDA works.

 

[fly4surf]

Actually you don't see those cars anywhere but here.

Aren't we lucky.

 

[atrdriver]

Ok. What about efficient rail systems WITHIN the cities or the Metro areas? Don't see too many Expeditions, F150's, Hummers, Tahoes, etc. in Europe either. We CHOSE suburbia, as opposed to living close to work. Where I live, ANY initiative to bring rail to the suburbs is QUICKLY stricken down. Imagine the horrors that a rail would bring to your town!!uke: Not to mention, they all couldn't drive their F-150's (most of whom do not NEED them) at 90mph, 40 miles to work.

So your argument only KINDA works.

Yes, we did choose suburbia, mainly because we HAVE suburbia. European countries don't have near the area that this country has. And yes, our cities should have built decent mass transit systems, but the simple fact is that nobody wants it in their back yard. I lived 46 miles one way from the airport in ATL, and I always said if they could get me to work for a couple of bucks each way they could have put a MARTA station in my front yard. Then again, in ATL if you live much closer to the airport than that you put yourself and family in danger, which is another reason why we chose suburbia.