gas/diesel prices not talked about.

[wulimaster]

Anyone notice how conspicuously absent the topic of oil prices (gas/diesel) is in not only the Bush and Kerry camps but also from any other source (reporters questioning the candidates, voters posing questions). Anyone know of any debate questions which addressed this topic and a source so I could go see their responses? If not in a debate then how about anywhere in the news where any questions regarding it were posed and answered?

Can anyone tell me how raising interest rates will stop inflation based on runaway energy costs and a deflating dollar. Does raising interest rates use recession to stop stagflation? Just trying to figure Greenspan out. Looks to me like he is trying to cripple an already embattered economy.

 

[Shannow]

wulimaster,
last tiem I saw a petrol price debate down here was about 3 years ago, when petrol first hit $1 per litre downunder.

Our dollar was $0.45 U.S., and oil was $37US/bbl.

Our treasurer pointed out that every cent our dollar dropped against the U.S.$, or every $U.S./bbl increase was 1c/l at the pumps.

We are now $0.75 U.S. for an Oz dollar, and oil is $55 per Barrel, so we should be 90c/litre, not $1.10

I tried to get my local member to raise this a few months ago (before our election, and he refused).

As to interest rates, I agree.

 

[Steve S]

The government is here to help us.

 

[XS650]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve S:
The government is here to help us.

---

Be thankful you aren't getting all the government that you are paying for.

 

[farfel]

Like any commodoity, the price of oil is set by supply & demand


Supply - Going down because Mideast wells are starting to dry up (this is kept secret to prevent a panic).

Demand - Going up because of developing countries like India & China are burning more oil


Neither Bush or Kerry can control supply/demand, so it'd be pointless for them to make false promises. If you think $2 a gallon is expensive now, wait until 2020 when $10 a gallon becomes the norm.

 

[labman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by farfel:
Like any commodoity, the price of oil is set by supply & demand

snip...
Neither Bush or Kerry can control supply/demand, so it'd be pointless for them to make false promises. snip...

---

-

I have a plan.

 

[farfel]

To reduce gasoline/oil prices? Please share.

 

[Pablo]

They both seem useless as tits on a bull in this arena. I'm not a big government spender type, but fostering research and engineering is cheaper than getting bungholed with no oil.....so to speak.

Kerry has "a plan", Bush has no plan funny how equal volumes of the same gas at the same pressure weigh the same......

Give Greenspan a call he's probably in the tub right now. Assuming the supply side holds up, higher interests rate should help stem loose money. The problem is this **** didn't work for Lyndon(print more money)Johnson, **** (price control) Nixon or Jimmy (I'm a ******* genius) Carter. And as you are wryly pointing out those underground mudslides in the gulf of tequila screwed the pooch at a time when the Rooskies are being stoopid, the Arabs are playing with their doozies under their shoofas, we are taking potshots and everyone loves sandyoil Canadians......(slow supply)......

 

[keith]

quote:

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Originally posted by labman:
I have a plan.

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If we elect you, will you then tell us about all of your plans, oh great one?

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

Like any commodoity, the price of oil is set by supply & demand


Supply - Going down because Mideast wells are starting to dry up (this is kept secret to prevent a panic).

Demand - Going up because of developing countries like India & China are burning more oil

---

Well I've asked this on another post ...if these prices are due totally to supply and demand ..where is the shortage? Who's not getting the oil? I don't see lines anywhere ..worldwide. That is, if I've got 100% production being sold and a new customer comes into the picture ...someone gets left out in the bidding for the product. Now if I increase production due to more demand ..the costs are due to inflationary expenses in the production (overtime, new machinery, etc.). Not a decreasing supply issue at all. All the "forces" appear primarily on the demand side of it.


So IF supplies are dwindling ..who's getting left out of the oil supply picture??? No one, as far as I can see.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:

So IF supplies are dwindling ..who's getting left out of the oil supply picture??? No one, as far as I can see.

---

There you go again.

You're trying to introduce logic to an off topic BITOG thread

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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There you go again.

You're trying to introduce logic to an off topic BITOG thread

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I know ..I know ..it's a crippling afliction

 

[farfel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:

quote:

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Like any commodoity, the price of oil is set by supply & demand

---

Well I've asked this on another post ...if these prices are due totally to supply and demand ..where is the shortage? Who's not getting the oil? I don't see lines anywhere ..worldwide.

---

No one is getting "shorted" but demand is high. Imagine for a second that you are a USA oil company: "I refuse to pay $55 a barrel." What will happen?

The Arabs will shrug and sell the oil to China or Europe or Japan. They have many many customers willing to buy. They don't need you.

But you need them.

So you fork over the $55 a barrel, because they control the supply.

 

[Gary Allan]

No arguement there. So you too believe that there is absolutely NO supply problem, merely the mismatch between current production capacity and demand for that production. Purely inflationary pressures common to any product.

 

[kenw]

supply and demand does not require that "someone not get gas" when demand is high or supply is low. If you wish, the one's "not getting gas" are those not willing to meet the current demand-ed price.

The supply-demand model is referring to the supply adn demand AT A GIVEN PRICE. Most people seem to leave that last part out....

What happens is the intersection of the supply curve and demand curve move (the intersection point is called "market price").

What you don't have anymore of is $20/bbl oil. There's pleny of demand for $20/bbl oil, just no supply.

You have plenty of supply and evidently a healthy demand for $50/bbl oil.

[ October 28, 2004, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: kenw ]

 

[farfel]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:
No arguement there. So you too believe that there is absolutely NO supply problem, merely the mismatch between current production capacity and demand for that production.

---

Yes.

But ask me the same question in 2010, when Arab oil wells start shutting down due to empty reserves, and I'll say "no".

 

[wulimaster]

quote:

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Originally posted by farfel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:
[qb]

Like any commodoity, the price of oil is set by supply & demand

---

Imagine for a second that you are a USA oil company: "I refuse to pay $55 a barrel." What will happen?

---

Like any commodity, oils price can be manipulated. Most oil companies get a percentage of the price. If the price goes up they get more. they also get more for the oil that they control entirely themselves. The customer foots the bill, not the oil companies. The price can go up for as long as there is excess storage capacity at the refineries. Usually the price will drop only when the storage is filled and there is no place left to store the excess. Then the price drops to spur demand.

 

[farfel]

I was talking about the price the oil company pays the Arabs. If the oil company says to the Arabs, "I refuse to pay $55 a barrel," the Arabs won't care. They'll just sell to China or Europe or Japan.

The oil company has to pay whatever the Arabs demand.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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If you wish, the one's "not getting gas" are those not willing to meet the current demand-ed price.

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Well if your saying that the guy who weekly buys his wife a dozen roses doesn't buy them on St. Valentines Day because the price jumps 300% for that week ...sure ...but if you happen to be a rose easter ..among a global population of rose eaters ...and all of you are still fed

So you also confirm that there is no shortage. Supply is keeping up with demand. Only the demand has increased and we see the norm inflationary pressures on production.

 

[kenw]

"So you also confirm that there is no shortage."

there is no shortage of oil if price is no issue. Economics 101.

at $20/bbl, there is no oil available.

at $55/bbl, there's lots.

at $100/bbl, there's even more!

we've got wells working in SE Texas that haven't been in production for eons. At $55/bbl, the oil they can get is now profitable. At $20/bbl, it's not profitable to get it (it's too deep or sulphur laden or locked into sand or whatever).