Can someone explain to me WHY we're getting DICKED on gas prices while oil companies post record profits? WTF?

Demand goes up, price goes up (I get that part).





Demand goes down, price still goes up????Can someone explain to me WHY we're getting DICKED on gas prices while oil companies post record profits? WTF?
Demand has gone down in the U.S. ONLY!! Not worldwide.





The U.S. has been sending jobs and buying cheap goods from countries like China and India...this gives them disposable income to buy things like cars and gasoline. Think about how many people are in those two countries alone.





As for the record profits, that is just greed. Period.





On PBS, two energy experts said that in about 9 more years there won't be ANY more oil/gasoline. Period. Then the U.S. will be about in the same state as China and India...another podunk broke country.Can someone explain to me WHY we're getting DICKED on gas prices while oil companies post record profits? WTF?
OPEC has been saying it won't increase its production of oil for months because they have oil sitting around in tankers that nobody's buying. As far as supply goes, there's more than enough oil on the market to completely cover the demand refineries need to produce gasoline. There's a surplus of oil on the market, and the stuff you learned in your high level economic classes says that the price of gasoline shouldn't be rising but dropping.





The real problem is that the price of oil is determined by the cost of oil on the futures market. In other words, oil is a paper traded commodity. Barrels of oil are being bought by people who'll never see it from people who never had it in the first place. Instead of the laws of supply and demand setting the price of oil, you've got bookies on wall street manipulating the price to get rich. It's also completely opaque. There's no accountability as far as reporting real oil supplies. This causes FUD and causes the price to skyrocket. When the crowd on wall street sees a commodity skyrocket, they have to jump on it immediately and make a buck -- kind of like someone being hot on the craps table. This extra volume causes the price to go up even more. Something else that's making this even worse is that state pension funds are now allowed to play the futures market, and the retirement money for many people is being gambled on a game that's ultimately rigged.





The reason oil can be manipulated this way is because unlike other futures markets, oil is specifically deregulated. This was legislation pushed through by Bush and his Enron Cronies. Several experts speculate that the true market price of a barrel of oil should be around $30, and not $130.





The price of oil will have to collapse, eventually. I strongly suspect that the winners will be wall street insiders, and the losers will be the poor shmoes who'll loose their retirement money.
demand doesn't go down is the problem. Even if everyone in America didn't get gas for one day (which is an impossibility). the only people really affected will be the store people selling the gas, not the oil company. They look at gas sells in weeks and months not days, and if no one bought gas tomorrow they'd just fill up today or the day after, thus equalizing sells for the oil companies. Until there is a great big change in the way new vehicles are made there won't be much of a decline in demand, then only after years with primarily electric/other car sells leading will the ';new'; cars seep into the poorer sections of America and thus decline demand.


As far as why we are getting hosed on the price, it's because OPEC is not regulated under the monopolistic laws in the U.S. and thus they are allowed to charge whatever they want and there is noone to argue, (without government help), and why would our government argue. (President and Vice President were both big in oil prior to election, and I'm sure that while they may not ';get'; anything while in office, how many of their friends do you think benefit from the oil prices.)
In reality the answer to this question is simply a perfect storm of problems. The Middle East (and more specifically OPEC) has realized that the rest of the world has become completely dependent on gasoline, which gives them a huge amount of power. Therefore they can increase the price of a barrel of oil to whatever they want and the modern world is forced to pay it in order to keep their economies going.





In addition the oil companies have realized the same exact thing. What most people don't understand about companies is that they see their primary concern as making money, not providing a service. They are owned by stockholders and the stockholders want to earn as much money as possible (through the form of dividends and higher stock value). Therefore the oil companies feel a duty to make their stockholders as happy as possible.





Couple this with the fact that environmentalist activism has completely hampered the United States' abilities to produce and refine its own oil and you have three major problems all contributing to the same result, skyrocketing oil prices.





There are only three possible solutions to the current problem. The first is discontinuing the use of oil altogether. While this would be ideal (since we would no longer be dependent on OPEC and the oil companies) but it's rather unfeasible. We use oil for more than just gasoline; it is vital for creating any sort of plastic, many fuel-based liquids (such as kerosene), and running any sort of machinery. Even if we converted every car in America to biofuels such as ethanol, we would still need to get oil from some place.





The second option would be government regulations on the price of gasoline. We place price caps on insulin for diabetics because pharmaceutical corporations have realized that diabetics cannot live without insulin. Therefore if given the chance between paying $5 million per injection of insulin or dying, many people would try to cough up the cash. Again, while this may seem ideal, it is unfeasible. If caps were placed on gasoline, oil companies would be much less motivated to produce gasoline at all. In the end we would have a situation such as what happened in the seventies during the Iranian revolution where there were extreme shortages.





The third solution would simply be to drill more American oil and build more refineries. This would increase the amount of oil without having to pay the absurd charges that OPEC currently has us under. However, due to many environmentally-based restrictions placed on the nation, we are unable to do so. And even if these restrictions were lifted for a small area (such as off the coast of California) they would only be a drop in the bucket compared to how much oil we need. It would require almost completely unrestricted access to all oil reserves across the nation in order to make any significant impact.





So in the end, it's really up to deciding whether we want to be environmentally friendly or whether we want to continue paying $5 a gallon for gas (because it will get there soon, guaranteed).
People gotta stop listening to what the news says..you always hear one side of the story..its not all Bush's fault..its a combination of the oil companies, our relationship with the middle east, environmentalists, and our democratic congress. Bush has asked congress multiple times for permission to drill on and off shores, but he was denied. There have also been various petitions presented to congress for permission to drill here in the states, and they too have been denied. Congress stands behind idiotic environmentalists that claim it will hurt our environment and kill fish in the ocean. We are on the verge of a major crisis, the stupid thing to do would be to not drill in our own country. Many of the democrats in congress have investments in green products, and hope to manipulate our economy forcing us into buying hybrid vehicles and the like so they can make big gains from our losses. Since when does america let our government tell us what we can and cant drive? If we drilled our own oil the wealthy dems in power would lose money big time as fuel and energy would drop. If anybody noticed, the whole place started sinking when the dems got into office. Thats a huge part of why we're in this rediculous situation.
The UK USA comparison above is wrong.


USA 0.88US$ per litre = to 0.44£ per litre


UK 2.37US$ per litre = to 1.20£ per litre


So UK pays $1.49 per litre more than USA!


Go figure. So why is the oil price $136 per barrel.


The answer is Bush - it could very well be a type of terrorist attack on the world and we are all too weak to fight it.


The world is full of people going ';dam'; but nobody does anything. If we had balls we would stop driving for a month and see what happens next!
WTF???????????I 'LL TELL YOU.


THE GOV.USES THE EXCUSE SUPPLY AND DEMAND.NOW THEY WILL PROBABLY BLAME THE FLOODS IN THE MID WEST FOR THE RISING PRICE OF OIL.I LIKED HOW THEY USED HURRICANE KATRINA SAYING THAT ALL THE REFINERIES WERE UNDER WATER.AHAHAHAHAHA, we got screwed.


anyway,mc cain wants to still keep the war going with the iraqui's and god forbid if obama gets elected in november we will be going to war with pakistan as he promised.


ALL I KNOW IS THAT OIL WILL PROBABLY REACH ALMOST 7.00 A GALLON AND I ALREADY GAVE UP MY VACATION THIS YEAR THAT I SAVED FOR LAST YEAR TO PUT OIL IN MY OIL TANK FOR THIS WINTER.


I ONLY LIVE 1 MILE FROM WORK SO IT WILL NOT KILL ME TO WALK TO WORK BUT WHY SHOULD I HAVE TOO?AMERICA IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE AND THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT THIS WILL BE A SHORT TERM SITUATION.I AM DISGUSTED WITH THE WAY THE U.S. HAS BEEN IN OPERATION THESE LAST 8 YEARS.
I just watched CNN’s international Channel(3pm EST), breaking the news that oil price spikes again. But the anchor and the reporter assert it is China’s diesel demand contributed to the hike.





Waited a sec ! It is already THIRD time I am hearing CNN’s assertion of China’s diesel demand. The first time was about two weeks ago. What’s going on?





Then, Israel’s-Iran-attack-drill news flashing back-------Which Was Just Happened This Morning ! That “unmistakable signal” is surely an act to have a consequence of oil supply disruption ! Why is it not reported as a oil spiking cause ? !





Time to scapegoat China again before a major offensive ? To verify, I went to CNN web site , there it is :





China hikes fuel prices http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/20/news/int…





China to raise energy prices


http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/19/news/int…





But nowhere saying that Israel’s-Iran-attack-drill will unstablize the oil supply region, causing the oil price up.





For Israelis Iran Strike Drill see


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c…
I wish I COULD explain it. It seems that we should be able to up our prices on goods that we export, as well. You know, stick it right back to them--maybe reach some kind of middle ground. It is maddening!
because the middle east has all the oil, AND we're dependent on them.


we cannot live without oil, so they take advantage and higher up the gas prices.


we need to go to alaska and drill some oil back at home!!
Do you know how much it costs for fuel in the United Kingdom.





1.05 pounds, that is about 1.75 doller US.





Try that out!
And all the American car companies are still pushing away the electric car. Honda has both electric and fuel cell cars, and they're the only ones making a profit.
cause george w bush owns oil companies in texas and he wants to get all the money he can before he gets kicked outta the white house....
i dont know but we are getting beat in the face pretty badly.
Ask President Bush .....Mr oil man himself
Well, they don't care about the demand, they're just greedy and want our money.
Try Mr.Bush!


God damn our economy is going to **** isnt it!
No idea but it is really annoying. Perhaps ';W'; knows the answers?