Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics Oil-Food-Water Link?

Schlack, I'd totally forgotten about the comments made on 700 club and the like. Good point. I can see now why they pay you the big buck. You have a sterling eye for the obscure.

So Rick, there ya have it....the blame is back on.

OKAY, Itstarted invested mucho time in creating this thread....soooo Back to OIL - FOOD - WATER LINK, we've seem to manage to drift a bit...

That's ok... I've kinda given up on discussing anything that requires much thought. Have tested the waters by posting on a few other blogsites, hoping for discussion rather than standup comedy (heh heh... what Slipped Mickey suggested was getting my panties in a knot). Happily, there are still many folks out there, willing to share opinions and thoughts, without turning everything into a joke. Just not here.

I was wondering why the number of posters had dropped to a core of about 20 members. I think that the guys and gals that are left must be so knowledgeable that they are content to play, and show their wisdom by making light of the subject... instead of just leaving it alone when thay have nothing to add or discuss.

Go back and read the first few parts of the thread... then see the direction it took... then ask yourself if anyone who was interested in the subject would go thru the rest of the posts to find any meaningful discussion.

I suggested a chatroom for the site for members to burn off their energies, but was told the roundtable served that need.

After looking at the last dozen threads that I was interested in (not just my own posts), I find that the subject generally gets hijacked, and almost always by "cutsey" one liners.

I think that common courtesy would suggest that when you've read the post, and are not interested, that you would leave it for replies by those might care.

Hijacking... to me, seems like a dog peeing on every bush, to show that he'd been there. Somehow, I can't get into that, so while I'll continue to take a peek once in a while, I'll take a break from serious stuff. Probably a relief, because my posts are too long anyway.

Vanity of vanities... all is vanity!

unknot them knickers there.

nothing wrong with light relief during a heavy topic. Had i wanted to hijack the thread i would have done so much more subtly. but thats not my thang.

this below was a serious post


i think it says everything about supply and demand theory, inequalities in the world, and how action in one place directly affects other places. it also highlights the serious need to change the way we do things on this earth.

Cue Isshodos.

Or, the first point of Ardy's reply may be in operation - an inflexible demand for oil. Even though the supply is not decreasing, even a slight increase in demand can cause prices to rise - a lot.

Of course, speculation that demand will continue to rise (reasonable - relatively inflexible demand, right?) will necessarily cause a rise in the futures market... because demand will very very likely be higher in the future, and so will prices.

So, it may very well not be 'artificial'.

More than likely I would say that *some* of it is 'artificial', especially considering 'herd mentality'... but I think it's just as easily explained by 'fixed supply, inflexible (and slowly rising) demand' as it is by any attempt to 'corner the market'.

Oh, and don't forget that 50% of the rise over the last 5 years is due to the fact that the dollar has lost about 1/3 of its value. If the dollar was at the same level it was at in the beginning of 2003, the price of oil would be around $80, not $120.

(Not to mention that markets hate uncertainty, and Iraq/Iran amke things just a little more 'uncertain')

Itstarted

You stated things I'd been pondering, but you did it far more concisely than I could have. I 'think' that things are going on, but am not educated enough in markets to know for sure that some things are being manipulated.

Oil- some market pressure, dollar devalued, speculator driven for the most part, just as tech stocks were, and housing was in my uneducated opinion.

Staples-same thing, but still related to inflated fuel costs. Higher costs to grow, to harvest, to ship, results in higher end cost to the consumer.

All other items rising in price= directly related to fuel for all the reasons stated above.

So, boil it down to it's simplest form. It's all about fuel costs.

So, what do we do?

The same things we did back during the last 'oil crisis' stop consuming so bloody much.

Get with the program on affordable alternatives to gas engines. Fuel cell?(I like that one due to zero emmissions) doesn't the base fuel for these come from methane? Yes? If so, there's a whole future in catching methane from landfills, all that methane gas currently being released into the environment could be stored and reused as fuel?

Me? FOr the first time ever I'm going to plant a garden, grow my own veggies to avoid paying the high price of fresh. I'll buy my fruits locally, and I just might go chat with my neighbor on the farm about learning how to milk my own damn cow too. , a friend and I already invested in a flock of chickens to cut out the 3+ dollars a dozen we pay for eggs. Free range chickens, who have the added benefit of bug control on her property. Oh yeah, and if we really want to get cute, we'll let some of the eggs hatch and grow out to become free range organic chicken for the dinner table :-))

I have cut my fuel consumption back to a bare minimum, go nowhere unless I absolutely need to, doesn't help the pain at the pump, but it does put a greater length of time between bouts of pain,

So, IMHO we are not at the mercy of speculators, at the end of the day 'we' control how far they can go by our habits, change our habits? We change the dynamic of the market, and personally I can't wait to see the bastards take the bath they so richly deserve

I really agree, Frazier. But our nation has become a bit spoiled. America loves it's toys...too much. But, I did recently read an article where many are TRYING to sell gas hogs and actually are buying small cars. So maybe my previous comment is a contradiction of sorts.

I do see American's leaving claw marks to depart from lifestyles they've come accustomed to.

Certainly in principle, I do agree with the quote listed above, We the People, with in managing government issues or ecomonic issues...we should be in control and the captains of out ship. There will be many bitter pills to swallow before the country surrenders to so many realities about the changes needed to get back in control of our destiny.

Thanks for your posting.

It would be an heroic act for the next President to lay out the truth to Americans, including how we have ravaged the planet for decades in order to keep the price of gasoline artificially low.

Something akin to the call from JFK to land a man on the moon coupled with a call for sacrifice on the part of all of us until we can convert the nation to a responsible member of the family of man.

Interesting note, spoke to a customer today who has a customer, who owns a fleet of trucks. He's purchasing a device(www.water4gas.com) already made, to put on a couple of his trucks, if the fuel efficiency is observably increased, he's going to install these on the whole fleet, Americans are starting to innovate, something we're very good at overall, we don't need a president to tell us the truth Phil, we really don't, that just furthers the nanny complex, what we need is for people to get their heads out of the clouds and see things plainly, and understand that the 'power' lies within all of us to change things, no one needs to 'lead' us into change, WE need to inititiate change on a macro level all by ourselves. Where the few succeed, the many will follow