Price of oil drops 24% in 2 months

[TCO]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
It's a fact that the biggest deposit in the Gulf was recently discovered. I'm not going to run all over the net looking for sources. That just popped up. Figured it was better than nothing; but no, Hell no.

Was in the Journal. Deep water.

[TCO]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Since most of the price hike was driven largely by speculation, there's no reason for prices not to fall. All it means is that consumers were screwed for no reason. Congress should force the ****ers to give us our money back.

you talk like a communist. Like a moron. Like a pole smoker. But I repeat myself.

[TCO]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The price hike had less to do with a percieved threat to supply and more to do with what they thought they could squeeze outta people. Remember, these are the same group of people who gave us the California electricity crisis that was later uncovered to have been completely manufactured.

http://salon.com/tech/htww/2006/09/2...nth/index.html

Like you know **** about this. Why don't you take off the trendy tee shirt, you little fellow traveler.

[TCO]

Re: Yes, but ...

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Its true that changes in future conditions change current market prices. That's what futures markets do. But its also true that traders can have an incentive to overinvest in futures contracts, as KH recently pointed out. (See Jack Hirshleifer, "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity", American Economic Review, 1971 for a more general version of the argument.) This causes prices to become more volatile than they otherwise would be. How big a problem is this? Not easy to say. Can we fix this problem without messing up the benefits of the futures markets themselves? Even harder to say. But it is a problem, a form of rent seeking we find throughout the economy.

p.s.: I wish our politicians would be as concerned about economic efficiency in other cases such as agricultural subsidies, trade, deregulation, tax reform, social security, etc as they appear to be in this case.

Flawed, incomplete discussion.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I do remember hearing some conspiracy theorist on NPR recently claiming that for the last ten years everytime it was an election year (so basically every two years) prices declined. It's hard to explain such a coincidence away.

There was the Redskins, democrat elected jinx...then Bush got in. There was the 00 curse, then Reagen survived.

[KrazyHorse]

Drive-by posting

[pchang]

It would appear

that many OPEC members have budgeted based upon $60+ oil per BBL.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil
Woo Hoo! (Sorry Flubber)

My company produces mainly natural gas anyway. Those prices never spiked and in fact have been quite low .

[Flubber]

Re: It would appear

Originally posted by pchang
that many OPEC members have budgeted based upon $60+ oil per BBL.

That is a silly silly thing to do.

I've been involved with a couple of major oil companies and their budgetinging has always been very conservative. They would be running stuff now based on prices in the low 40s-- You cannot do multi-year projects based on a price spike or dip-- its the long range forecast that matters

[DanS]

Yes, that is a silly, silly thing to do.

But I agree with pchang that it seems like they are doing so.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious


Don't apologize to him. Demand your money back.

I have never seen a reasoned argument why you should get any money back.

and "because I spent too much on gas" is not a reasoned argument

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Huh?! I don't have any money for consumer goods. I spent it all on that damn gas!

and the gas must have been worth what you paid at the time. After all you paid for it freely. Nobody forced you . If you don't want the gas at the price offered, you could walk or take public transit.

IN fact wouldn't communal transit be in line with your ideological cant

[Wezil]

I can't walk or take public transit. I consume a couple tanks of gas per week so a difference of 25 cents a litre is real money, either in my pocket or in the tank.

[Peter Triggs]

I'm told that the Canadian government is forcasting a long term price of $45/barrel but don't hold your breath.

It's not in OPEC's interests to let prices fall and I simply don't believe that they will allow it to happen:

OPEC to cut output 4 percent to bolster prices


Report says Kuwait, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya informally agreed to voluntary cuts, UAE may join them.


HONG KONG - The OPEC cartel has agreed informally to cut oil output by one million barrels a day or 4.0 percent in order to bolster prices which have fallen some 25 percent from record levels in July, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/business/?id=17725

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil
I can't walk or take public transit. I consume a couple tanks of gas per week so a difference of 25 cents a litre is real money, either in my pocket or in the tank.

A couple of tanks?? Eitehr you get lousy mileage or you drive pretty far .

My previous comment was aimed at kid who, IIRC lives in urban California. People in rural regions obviously have to drive more on average