Have you heard? We're in the midst of a financial crisis, requiring massive government bailouts and other really scary sounding, alarmist actions dealing with esoteric financial derivatives and instruments that have been extensively discussed everywhere you look. However, one thing that's really got my attention but I have not heard being discussed is what has happened with gas prices in the last six weeks or so.In our area, gas prices have dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% or more, around $1.10 per gallon in the last six week alone. Why? Well, good question. The price of a barrel of oil has certainly come down, which helps to some degree. But I've got to be honest, gas prices have been much higher than this at the current price of oil. So what was keeping oil prices elevated? Some would tell you it is oil speculators, people who simply trade contracts for future delivery of oil. You'll probably hear some chatter about hurricanes shutting down refineries. And I'm sure a talking head somewhere will tell you of geopolitical issues, maybe a discussion of warring tribes in some undeveloped nation.
I'm here to say it's all a bunch of BS. All of the above are probably contributing factors but I think corporate greed is the driving force behind the price of a gallon of petro folks. It seems awfully fishy to me that as the economy takes a deep nosedive south, the price of gas suddenly does the same. It's almost as if someone has decided that at long last, the economy has had more than it can take and that price relief needs to be instituted. And so, the price plummets. Maybe it's all a big free-market coincidence but I find that very hard to believe.
The galling thing about all of this is that up until said price relief was instituted, the prices were artificially inflated. Shocker! I think we all at least suspected this. I find this entire situation to be infuriating. It's as if the wizard behind the curtain has finally decided that he can stop taking from our collective wallets. A prime example of big business sticking it to the population.
I'm sure this sounds very conspiratorial and I'm not normally of that mindset. But I just can't believe that these things aren't related. With that, I'll end this rant. I certainly don't want this blog to become political so we'll return to some different fare.
Song lyric of the day: "All American, an evil game of extortion" Anthrax, I'm the Man
Until next time.
Ace
10 comments:
You raise some great points. Gas back in NC is still scarce since the hurricanes (good luck finding anything but 87). That "elevated demand" has kept us from getting that price relief that everyone else is enjoying. Good times!
I agree, right before the prices fell I heard an "expert" asking why if the price of oil had dropped by 30% for over two weeks, why the prices at the pumps had not fallen. This was picked up by most national media and then suddenly the prices dropped. Freakin' thiefs.
I was so impressed that you had an Anthrax lyric, but it's not from I'm The Man. I'm The Man was the jokey rap-metal song. I was thinking "Caught In A Mosh" but that's not it either. I may do some research into this pressing question...
"A Skeleton In The Closet" which was based on Stephen King's novella "Apt Pupil" which was made into a movie not too terribly long ago.
And for the record, I found it by looking through my old cassettes and scrolling through the lyrics...a process our children will never experience....
Wow, Duch - I'm impressed that (1) you still have cassettes readily available (ie not stored in the back of a closet) and (2) that you scrolled through the lyrics... YOU are the man.
BT, I had no idea y'all were impacted by the hurricane gas outage. I thought it was further south. That really sucks.
Shel, I can send your resume to OPEC along with mine. Forget this save the world teaching thing, show me the coin!
Duch, for the record, I did look up the song title online so I claim faulty sources as opposed to my own stupidity, which is normally the cause of such things.
Amen brother, Amen
Amen brother,Amen
lol, McLovin, fantastic!
Regarding the gas, Julie had heard and brought up that the middle east is still sitting on at least another 25 years worth of oil, some of the other nations are only sitting on 10. The way things are going, I'm guessing that America's new cars will be all non gas by the time those 10 years are up. The middle east will realize this eventually and will start to loosen up on the supply so they can get their money now.
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