Nov 13 2008
Oil, Oil, Toil, and Trouble
Somebody asked, “What do you think about oil prices and the fact that they’ve dropped so significantly? Do you really think it’s all about speculation, that demand will be so low because of the economic crisis that is affecting the entire world?”
Somebody responded, “I don’t think people are smart enough to know.” Which opened up a different variety of worms which we will discuss at later date.
Here’s what I think based on my many years on this planet:
First of all oil skyrocketed out of control very fast. Any reason to speculation that oil would not meet demand was a reason for it to go up.
Let’s go down a list:
- Going to war in Iraq—oil up (nothing changed—oil still flowed, just speculation that there might be a problem)
- Hurricanes that could affect the Gulf oil platforms.
- Boutique gasoline mixtures—caused gas prices to increase.
- Taxes—to provide money for this and that.
- Refinery fires—remember them?
- Don’t forget the new emerging markets—India and China and supply and demand…
- How about rumor that the world supply of oil is running low?
- How about the maniac Mr. Imma-Dinna-Jacket from Iran making the world think he’s going to disrupt the oil supply line?
- Don’t let me forget the analysts, whose words like, I can see oil at (unheard of inconceivable price of) $100 a barrel—and then we marched right up to $100 plus!
- Oil speculators, like the late 90’s day traders—out of control!
- Oh, I almost forgot the value of the US dollar. Oil prices are based on the dollar, because of weakness in the dollar (due to printing up more money for all this debt and selling our debt to other countries, the value of the dollar significantly fell like a rock)—the dollar bought less or things like oil cost more—this was also a cause for the swift increase of the price of oil.
Up, up an away in my beautiful balloon!
By the way the cost of getting oil never changed about $2-$3 a barrel!
Speculators making millions, corporations making unheard of billions, and guess what, the government making trillions in taxes on the same corporations profits and taxes on consumers at the gas pumps and taxes on the speculators trading. By the way where does that tax money go that the government quietly can’t pile high enough or fast enough???
So, we had another little bubble… Getting bigger and bigger. Corporations and speculators and GOVERNMENT getting richer and richer, while the bomb ticks away! People start warning sirens. Tic tick tic.
You remember the stock market bubble: peoples personal wealth increasing, corporations that didn’t even have earnings or a product worth billions on paper, and the government (where do you think all the tax money goes—SURPLUS???) getting richer and richer, while the bomb ticked away. People sounded the alarms—”irrational exuberance!” Stock market can’t keep going up, there’s no fundamentals…” Poof! All gone
So people finally started crying here at home about the high price of gas at the pump and leaders like Obama, Reid, H. Clinton, Pelosi talked about windfall profit tax (because they thought they could get away with it and then talked about government taking over the oil industry…)
Bush mentions drilling for the oil that we have right here in our own backyard… The mere mention sends speculators reeling in panic. The music stopped and everyone rushing for the last chair. Obama, Reid, H. Clinton, Pelosi, telling people that drilling will only bring the prices down by pennies 10 years from now—hahahaha! The public not buying it! Drill baby drill is the chant!
Speculators can’t get rid of their oil futures fast enough! Oil is plummeting! Faster on the way down than it was on the way up! No drilling won’t matter—just mention it and it dropped over $50 per barrel…
Now, oil’s more than $100 a barrel cheaper! Was that a bubble I heard pop???
The biggest loser will be the government—all the tax revenue—poof! Gone!
And now, we’re in the middle of this mess with the financial crisis, not seen since the Great Depression. The sub prime mortgage debacle is ground zero and a real estate bubble popped. The first stage cause—people who can’t afford homes and banks being forced by government to give them loans. Second stage, the banks knew people couldn’t pay back the loans and didn’t want to get stuck holding the short end, packaged up the bad loans under some prime beef and sold it off to the suckers! The world wanted a piece of the action and got it! People sounded the sirens! Nobody listened. Poof! Trillions evaporated! Jobs gone! Companies gone! Wha happen???
So you have this halt to the world economy and everybody (all the nations including this one) responsible. You know how I know everyone is responsible? Because even those with their hands clamped in the cookie jar aren’t aren’t to blame… Nobody is being dragged through the streets to be executed over this HUGE MESS. People involved are even getting new jobs and positions—how is that possible? How is it possible that there isn’t anyone in trouble or losing their job over this? Where is the accountability?
The Government convinces everyone that almost a trillion dollars are needed after injecting billions into a failing system for over a year. They say the money is for buying bad loans from the banks. And now the government is starting to bail out private industry by taking them over. And the appropriated money that was NEEDED is now being considered to bail out the auto industry—WHAT? You said it was for this and now it’s going to be for that? The government is definitely going to need more money! Think about this, Social Security doesn’t have the money in it that it has collected because the money was used for something else… Tick Tic Tick.
List of bursting factors:
- Bush mentions drilling
- Speculators go running!
- Economy slamming down because of the sub prime mortgage disaster.
- World economy affected and speculation that the world is in for some very bad times.
Oil at $50.96 on November 12, 2008
Oh, we haven’t even touched Social Security or Health care yet—Tic Tick Tic—BOOM!
—iChef PSA
PS
We are truly fucked! I wish the global warming would hurry up already and end this disaster we let happen!
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Other Voices:
Oil spirals below $55 per barrel by Ed Morrissey
Bailout-mania: If you didn’t see this coming… By Michelle Malkin
More reader mail on bailout-mania By Michelle Malkin
We Can Solve the Financial Crisis by Destroying OPEC
There’s a way to force the oil cartel to compete with other energy sources.
- by Robert Zubrin Dr. Robert Zubrin, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is an astronautical engineer and author of Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil.
Detroit Climbs Aboard the Bailout Gravy Train by William Teach
Detroit is a Petri dish, in which mad scientists have allowed the loathsome bacterium that is liberalism to flourish without restraint. As a result of this misguided experiment, the former capital of industry has been reduced to a Third-World hellhole. The most liberal city in America has bankrupted itself, and now has its hand out.
Estimated cost of feds’ financial crisis countermeasures thus far: $5 trillion By: Pam on RightVoices
Video: Subprime Banking Mess..How the markets really work By: Pam on RightVoice
Paulson: Um, change of plans on the bailout money by Allahpundit
The money bit (pun intended) comes at 1:15. It seems the Troubled Asset Relief Program will no longer involve, er, troubled assets, but rather injecting capital — which, per Slublog, sounds like a good idea to one of the very few bloggers able to comment on this mind-boggling subject beyond the level of ideological boilerplate. (Me not included.)
What’s A Moderate Depression? by MaxedOutMama
The Fed’s Ponzi Scheme: “It’s none of your business where the money is going.” by: Mark Epstein
