Once again gas prices are causing pain. I'm one of those people who had both pay and hour cuts at work and find that costs keep rising! OUCH!
sandiegopete
· 5 months ago
the problem is that when commodities, like oil or wheat or soy, are allowed to be exchanged on the open market the speculators can drive the price up. Oil crashed because once the financial house of cards came down and companies like Lehman and Bear Stearns imploded and other companies like AIG, Citi, Goldman and B of A had to scramble to cover losses in the real estate markets they pulled their money out of oil futures so the demand was cut off at the knees. The demand for oil doesn't come from refiners but from saavy investors who knew that oil had to where to go but up, especially with producers holding back production in order to allow prices to escalate.
The solution is to limit oil purchases only to end-user refineries who will actually turn oil into a finished product. Right now a trader can buy 90 oil futures--bidding up the price, and hold on to them until an actual end-user, who needs oil to manufacture their product, has to purchase the contract for a higher price--therefore the trader makes a profit which is based on creating a false demand (since the trader won't actually create a product with the oil she/he is purchasing) and drives the price up for the actual end user manufacturers and, ultimately, the consumer.
Part of the market reforms the SEC should look at, along with limits on short-selling, is restricting commodities purchases to end users in order to cut out the needless speculation which drives prices up for consumers and while creating more wealth for the already wealthy.
But this is why I ride a motorcycle and bicycle for my transportation--I refuse to play this game and to allow speculators to profit off my gas/oil purchases...
brisa0725
· 5 months ago
World governments are printing fiat currencies by the ton...backed only by a promise of future and perpetual growth. Taking into account on-going and irreversible elephant oil field depletion, there will simply not be enough usable energy to make good on that promise.
Local sustainability is becoming the new measure of wealth everywhere.
All Comments
The solution is to limit oil purchases only to end-user refineries who will actually turn oil into a finished product. Right now a trader can buy 90 oil futures--bidding up the price, and hold on to them until an actual end-user, who needs oil to manufacture their product, has to purchase the contract for a higher price--therefore the trader makes a profit which is based on creating a false demand (since the trader won't actually create a product with the oil she/he is purchasing) and drives the price up for the actual end user manufacturers and, ultimately, the consumer.
Part of the market reforms the SEC should look at, along with limits on short-selling, is restricting commodities purchases to end users in order to cut out the needless speculation which drives prices up for consumers and while creating more wealth for the already wealthy.
But this is why I ride a motorcycle and bicycle for my transportation--I refuse to play this game and to allow speculators to profit off my gas/oil purchases...
Local sustainability is becoming the new measure of wealth everywhere.