Thursday, December 04, 2008

The Oil Conspiracy

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post asking why the gas in my area was $ 1.93, when less than six months ago, it was over $4.00. Well now, it's down to $ 1.77. I see I'm not the only one wondering what has happened.

From Politicalinaction.com:

Thursday, December 4, 2008
My oil conspiracy......


I do not believe the oil markets are telling us the truth. The sudden rise in oil, followed by the sudden collapse, are just too coincidental for everything to be on the up and up. When viewed from a far, meaning outside of 'supply and demand', it seems to me that the oil companies were trying to maximize their returns before having to cut prices dramatically to boost Republican chances in November. I was called a fool when I said, in July, that gas would be $2 by election day. I said that the oil companies would try and help McCain win by taking the gasoline worry off of the minds of the American public...but the oil companies lost and the drive by media fired everyone up about the cratering economy. Now, faced with Obama, Democratic majorities, and a mandate for real change, oil has fallen precipitously. My question is why....and I believe the answer makes the oil companies out to be nothing more than criminal.

Oil was $150 a barrel in July, and gasoline was over $4 a gallon in late July of this year. Barack Obama had just returned from his successful overseas trip, and he was 10 points ahead of John McCain. Then oil and gas prices began to fall and basically halved themselves by election day. I believe the oil companies were trying to take gasoline off the minds of consumers so they wouldn't elect Obama, and as many Democrats. While that is criminal in and of itself, whatever, what I am more concerned about is how far oil has fallen since Obama won. I believe the oil companies think they're fighting for their very survival. I think they view the incoming Obama administration as radically dangerous to their business models. I think that the drop in prices right now is an effort by oil companies to take away the public will for green energy. I myself have been a victim of their nefariousness. I drive a pickup, and it gets decent gas mileage. But even now I'm not even thinking about how much I spend on gas or drive, when all summer with gas at $4 a gallon I religiously watched my total mileage each day. I've even caught myself looking at Hummers and Ford F150s the other day, thinking how it wouldn't be that much more to drive one of those. I was astonished at myself given how much of a gasoline Nazi I was over the summer. If the drop in prices put fuel efficiency on the back burner, I know it done the same for Joe the Plumber.

I don't believe this is a result of supply and demand, but that this is blatant manipulation by the oil companies. Prices don't sky rocket in a global slowdown, given that a report came out last week that said our economy has been in a recession for over a year, then suddenly plummet. Sure, we can say the world was still booming, but we use 25% of the oil. If we are in a recession, oil should not go up. It means we aren't buying Chinese products, therefore they need less oil. The oil companies are doing this because Obama has 2-3 initiatives he can implement immediately when he gets into office. He'll get his way with hardly any pushback from Republicans as long as he includes them in the process. The first is going to be an economic recovery package of some kind. My guess is that Paulson leaves Obama some money from the remaining $350 Billion, but not enough to really do anything, which forces the Democrats to pass a new bill, which Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will load with welfare giveaways, union giveaways, 'training programs', and other complete wastes of money when the money should be given directly to you and I in a rebate check. I'll spend my money better than my government will. For example, the American people have already rejected the bailout of the Big 3 by buying Hondas and Toyotas. The second is going to be Iraq, continuing the gains there, but funding veteran's healthcare and redeploying and reconstituting our force in Afghanistan. Everyone has pretty much agreed to this already, but the Republican genie is going to say this is one of his wishes. So that leaves one more initiative, combat energy independence or healthcare. If the oil companies can remove the problem of oil and gas prices from the American mind, not only will they take away Obama's political capital, but they can then say any Obama energy initiative will return prices back to July, and blame any future price hikes by them on Democrats. They're trying to make universal healthcare reform more appealing to Obama than revamping our national energy policy.

To get around this, Obama could group all the domestic stuff into one big stimulus package....take care of the healthcare and energy monkey while stimulating the economy. Put the energy lobby up against fixing the economy. My personal opinion is that within 6 weeks we will see $.99 a gallon gas. Thankfully, when asked 2 weeks ago if that the fall in oil put energy independence on the back burner in light of all that is of pressing need to the country, Obama responded that now that prices have dropped, it is even more pressing, so we can use this time of price relief to our benefit.
Labels: Barack Obama, CNN, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy

posted by Brian Francis


Just cause you're paranoid, doesn't mean folks aren't out to get you.

I think Henry Waxman should investigate.

4 comments:

LISA VAZQUEZ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LISA VAZQUEZ said...

Hello there!

You are EXACTLY right... the price inflation was manipulated...and the DECLINE in prices is being manipulated.

The U.S. consumers could not BOYCOTT this type of price manipulation by refusing the product because they are completely oil dependent.

This scenario should be a wake up call for the U.S. consumer... the alarm is ringing....who is answering??

Who?

Brian said...

Good to know i'm not crazy.

The economic slowdown really isn't enough to explain such steep price declines. Demand may be down slightly...due to the economy and we are in the colder season... but it's not down enough to account for a 2/3 drop in 4 months...or a drop of $100.00 or more. It's unprecedented.

And it was awfully suspicious that they began dropping right around election crunch time...when McCain was in a neck and neck fight (at least in the beginning). The link between the White House and the Oil Industry is tighter than any other administration in modern history... probably the strongest in the history of the Presidency. So that helped raise even more questions.

And in reality....demand hasn't dropped all that much... Manufacturing and construction are down... that will make it drop some... but my streets are just as congested ...and even more congested now than they have been in a while. People are still driving to work...to look for work...going to the grocery store... to the mall...the post office.... etc. Although life is dismal for me... life still goes on... and people still have to get to where they are going.
So the supply and demand argument has probably gone as far as it can go... that can't explain what has been happening in the last few months. Plus... OPEC has already adjusted their pricing and production to account for much of the demand changes... and the price continued to drop for quite some time after that...and it's still dropping.

I still believe that prices will probably go back up somewhat... but it really calls into question what has been happening under the Bush Administration. A bunch of people have gotten rich (or folks who are already rich....made their bank accounts even bigger) off of our backs. Someone needs to investigate...

Congress? They have shown no interest in really going after the Bush Administration... neither has Obama. Both have already made it clear that they plan to go along with business as usual. But I think this Country...esp. the White House... is one giant crime scene.

Americans have been triple raped.

Once at the gas pump.... and then having their retirement savings and housing values eviscerated... and thirdly, by having their tax money siphoned off to Wall Street.

Now we are facing a Fourth assault - The loss of jobs (and the threat of losing jobs).

And no one wants to investigate?

Meanwhile.... $10 Billion a month has gone to Iraq...wasted money along with wasted blood. Over $500 billion all together. The military industrial complex.... KBR, Halliburton, Blackwater... Lockheed, Boeing, etc.. are all doing well. As are the oil companies... and the Big corporations who have access to bailout money. Talk about a redistribution of wealth... we have already seen one of the biggest redistribution's in history.

Anything Obama does would just be a correction....and it still wouldn't put all the money back that has been stolen.

Brian said...

PS

Remember the California energy crisis from several years back? At the time.. folks were claiming "supply and demand" as the reason for the high prices and blackouts.

Well... a few years later we found out that the energy companies had been manipulating prices and stealing money.