Uh no.

Prices have been increasing since gasoline was invented, true. And I've seen fuel prices increase steadily in spurts over the 25+ years I've been driving. But they haven't been increasing in a cyclic six month pattern, where they rise 20-40 cents and then back off.

This was a pattern I noticed right after I returned from Iraq in '03 and has continued for the last 2.5 years. And, it is obviously still going on, since we've had a 35 cent price increase, people have been yelling "gouging" and other things REALLY loudly, and suddenly, they prices are starting to decrease.

Coincidence? I'm sure some will say yes, but I believe not.

 

Actually, (and I may be wrong) I seem to remember the retirement amount was $648 million. And the math was done to show that he made $100 a minute that he worked for the company.

Either way, the retirement package is obscene.

 

Correct, $100 minute asleep or awake.
Who's worth THAT?

 

ME

Boss said he couldn't pay me what I was worth........there's a minimum wage law......

 

This is very popular "thinking". The parentheses are there because it represents the conclusions reached by those who DON'T think it through.

It's much easier and convenient to believe that price is just an arbitrarily set thing, that oil companies are conducting one huge pyschological experiment trying to milk us for all they can.

Price is not determined by an oil company's desires to get rich. It's determined by two things: supply and demand. It's just that simple-- and that complex.


So here's the standard "mythbuster" question that the conspiracy kooks can't answer:


WHY NOW? If oil companies are "gouging" us, why haven't they just set the price at stupid high levels in the past? Why not raise the price even further??


I'd like to hear the weak answers to those questions, if for nothing else than entertainment.

jh

 

The golden parachutes given to the fatcats certainly don't make the corporations look very good.

But the market will punish or reward accordingly.

That $400M is $400M that the company will NOT have for exploration or maintenance. They shoot themselves in the foot.

They give their competing oil companies an advantage.

Ultimately, this is an internal issue though-- one that is for the shareholders of a corporation to decide.

If you don't like the way a corporation is doing something, then buy some stock and vote at the next shareholder meeting.

If you don't own stock in a corporation, then their internal affairs are none of our dang business.


JH

 

I won't get into a fight with you about this, since I already had the same discussion with Rusty over the same thing.

You can call it 'thinking', you can call it 'conspiracy theorists', you can call it whatever you want.

If you look at historical prices for crude, look at the relationship between prices and rig count, none of this makes sense. I am not 'thinking' about anything. I am looking at real numbers, available to anyone, and they don't meet with reality.

The commodities market is raising the prices due to some severely strained 'what if' theories. "What if Iran" this, what if that. The prices of crude on the commodities market was DECLINING during the late 80's when we were escorting tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. This was after Iran threatened to do the exact same thing the market is 'thinking' may happen now. The highest amount crude has ever been traded for was DURING the Iran/Iraq war.

I am not saying that there is a conspiracy at all. What I am saying is that the oil companies are flat out robbing the American public (and the world in turn) through artificially increased prices. Looking at historical trends, rig counts, and rigs working, you can see the reality.....not the fallacy. I gave up talking about this 'emotionally', I now use their own numbers against them.

Have a good one!!

 

In 1920 gasoline cost 30 cents/gallon. gold was $20/oz. Therefore an ounce of gold would buy almost 67 gallons of gas.

Today with gas at $3.25/gal and gold at $720/oz. an ounce of gold will buy over 221 gallons of gasoline.

I'd say fuel is dirt cheap right now.

Edwin

 

$2.89 in sunny central Oklahoma.............

 

Tonight....Northern Virginia, DC suburbs
Diesel ........$3.02
Unleaded ....$2.99

 

Here's what I dont get. 2 stations, within 1/2 mile of each other, on the same side of the road in Garrisonville, VA (near Quantico).

Station 1 is 3.29 for diesel, station #2 is 2.79 and there's always a line at the pump. Dont you think station #1 would get a clue?

 

No. They are money hungry theives like the stations around here. It is $.10 a gallon cheaper in town that on Interstate 35. They are crooks. They know that folks wont drive the extra miles to save money.

 

So how are they crooks? They are offering their product for sale and giving you the CHOICE of rolling up to their vacant pump without waiting in line and paying a small price more, and being on your way. My interpretation of being a crook would be if they were selling you fuel at any price, but rigging the pump to say you were getting a stated quantity of fuel, when in fact you were getting less than stated, or selling you a lesser quality product than stated, such as when some of the stations around here were selling mid-grade gas at premium prices. If I place an ad in this forum's classifieds for a set of wheels and someone else does the same at $10 less, does that make me a crook? Can you say Capitalism?
If it is as you say, doesn't it make sense that a person in a rush, or just someone who values his/her time might just appreciate the convenience of being able to roll up to the vacant pump, and concider it well worth the extra charge to be able to do so?

 

Many times the closest station to the highway off ramp has the highest price.
They nail the travelers who need fuel and stop at the first thing they see.
I try drive to one a mile or so off the highway, and usally save several cents per gallon.

 

This is the reason I started using Ad removed site violation