Sen. Warren On Oil Prices: This Isn't About Inflation. This Is About Price Gouging

[jc456]

By introducing Covid?

2020? hmmmmm the post said 2017.

 

[jc456]

I trust big oil about .0000000000000000000000000000000001 percent.

nor the lady on this op!!!!!!

 

[pknopp]

I trust big oil about .0000000000000000000000000000000001 percent.

The thing is "big oil" is not who is screwing with the prices. These fluctuations are not because of actual fundamentals.

 

[pknopp]

2020? hmmmmm the post said 2017.

OK, well he didn't. Oil prices were higher in each of Trump's years than in 2016 until Covid hit.

The average price of oil in 2017 was $50.80 in 2018 it was $65.23

So, what exactly are we arguing?

 

[BlindBoo]

We need a full commie takeover of America's resources, you know, to make it fair, so they can shut it all down in favor of green energy to save their god, mother Earth from the mean humans.

Mother Earth laughed and said "Save yourself!"

 

[BluesLegend]

Suddenly Dimocrats are concerned about high gas prices?!
Hah!
They want high gas prices, they know the longer gas is cheap, the longer it will be before they can kill fossil fuels!

Dems don't want to kill fossil fuels, Dems want to OWN fossil fuels. Dems look at other countries where government gets all the profits from fossil fuels and drool with envy. That's why a leading Dem in congress didn't threaten to shut down fossil fuels, she threatened to socialize all the oil companies and have government take them over.

 

[22lcidw]

OK, well he didn't. Oil prices were higher in each of Trump's years than in 2016 until Covid hit.

The average price of oil in 2017 was $50.80 in 2018 it was $65.23

So, what exactly are we arguing?

Not you making excuses. You know better. You lied....again...

 

[BlindBoo]

trump stopped that.

So you're saying Trumpybear was responsible for the world wide Covid pandemic shut down.

 

[BlindBoo]

Dems don't want to kill fossil fuels, Dems want to OWN fossil fuels. Dems look at other countries where government gets all the profits from fossil fuels and drool with envy. That's why a leading Dem in congress didn't threaten to shut down fossil fuels, she threatened to socialize all the oil companies and have government take them over.

Like Alaska? Where all citizens share the oil wealth of the state not just the oil companies? Sure, that's gonna happen!

 

[The Original Tree]

Mother Earth laughed and said "Save yourself!"

Haha. Once in a while you have a sense of humor.

 

[The Original Tree]

Like Alaska? Where all citizens share the oil wealth of the state not just the oil companies? Sure, that's gonna happen!

Democrats don't share wealth, they take it for themselves.

 

[pknopp]

Not you making excuses. You know better. You lied....again...

Stomp your feet because you can't address things honestly.

 

[BluesLegend]

Like Alaska? Where all citizens share the oil wealth of the state not just the oil companies? Sure, that's gonna happen!

Sure, except when government steals the oil profits that citizens were supposed to get.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

The price of gasoline (unlike many other commodities) is determined largely by geo-political factors. The real cost price of oil in the Gulf, for example, is tiny, and the Saudis can almost instantly increase production dramatically, as they did at the very beginning of 2020 before COVID changed everything. They certainly were willing to work closely with ex-President Trump, who embraced MSB after his infamous butchery of the mild Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The U.S. is supposedly “energy independent” and now an exporter. So what was and is really happening here? This long comment will try to explain a bit.

But first a word about “general inflation” which is linked to the dramatic increase in energy prices (from COVID levels), though it has other causes too. The “logistics problems” coming out of the COVID disruption should resolve themselves in the short term — short of a catastrophic war or more protectionist tariff increases. “General inflation” due to Fed monetizing debt, etc., mostly has gone into ASSET INFLATION, protecting stock market values, bank profits, speculators/investors, etc. This is a different, long-term problem. Labor wages going up is a small factor here. In any case, the power of unions has been broken and there is no possibility of ordinary wages driving runaway inflation in the U.S.A.

On gasoline and energy, a basic reality: Gulf Oil and Petrodollars still matter. Oil is a fungible commodity. The inflated price we pay at the pump for gasoline right now is way up in large part due to political factors. What factors? The greed and profit strategy of different sections of the oil industry, and the Saudi dislike for the Biden administration, is one important factor. These guys want free reign under a new Trump administration.

OPEC (or OPEC+) today would not dare sanction the West as it did in 1973, but Gulf Oil sheikdom money still has tremendous influence in D.C. and the City of London. Saudi dictator & butcher MBS seeks to punish Biden and Democrats, to prevent any change in U.S. support to the Gulf Oil Kingdom’s policies. One interesting aspect of the article below (whose title is exaggerated) is it argues Saudi Arabia is withholding oil production because Biden won’t meet with Mohammed bin Salman after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Remember too, the U.S. sanctioning Iran and Venezuela and our destruction of Libya and Iraq also greatly contributed to Saudi and Gulf Shiekdom economic power. The new ties between these Gulf States and the Israeli Lobby here further consolidates the power of this reactionary power block in D.C.

https://theintercept.com/2021/11/11/inf ... n-mbs-oil/

“Energy security” (including via fracking), but especially with ecologically sustainable new technology, is most everywhere rightly considered a strategic goal. The U.S. NOW already has basic “energy security,” but still IIRC has the largest per capital carbon footprint of any major country in the world.

Insofar as control over the Middle East is concerned, super profits and recycling Petrodollars have aided the West immensely over several generations now. Keeping the price high but reasonable was necessary to develop fracking, deep water drilling, and other oil / gas technologies and logistics for LNG that made the U.S. “energy independent” and even a world exporter.

Long Term Solutions

In my opinion the U.S. should now change its policy and not continue to use energy and energy sanctions as a geo-political weapon. This policy keeps energy prices artificially high and has fused the interests of the military industrial complex & oil giants’ power in D.C., leading us often into absurd “forever wars.” We need an international policy that weakens oil producing dictatorships (including Russia) through competition itself. This will help force them to diversify their economies or die. The “oil curse” always tend to corruption and centralizing autocratic government, to dictatorial elites taking power. Finally, China is very paranoid about the U.S. potentially cutting off its imports from the Persian Gulf, and this is destabilizing our relations with it on many levels.

The U.S. needs to end sanctions against Iran and Venezuela (and get out of Syria). Encouraging real “free trade” in oil and additional foreign investment (e.g. from China in Iraq) would drive prices way down, weaken the hand of producers and stabilize relations between the great powers. The oil industry could then be less a contended geo-political and military issue, more of a normal part of world trade. Insofar as ecological issues are concerned, taxes on carbon would then be more achievable either imposed internationally or nationally.

A lot of special interests will oppose any such re-orientation, of course, and they control American public opinion on a host of related issues. Don’t hold your breath.

 

[pknopp]

If we would quit trying to control other countries with "economic policies" surrounding energy issues, other countries would be less likely to try and undermine the dollar which would be a positive for the US in the long picture.

No one wants to consider the long picture. They want what they want right now, screw the future.

 

[Cellblock2429]

You completely missed my point.

Lefty sheep will never call out Dems on their lies.

/——/ Sorry about that. I’ll leave my post up so democRATs can ponder their deceitful ways.

 

[jc456]

OK, well he didn't. Oil prices were higher in each of Trump's years than in 2016 until Covid hit.

The average price of oil in 2017 was $50.80 in 2018 it was $65.23

So, what exactly are we arguing?

price of a barrel of oil today vs 2017?

 

[ColonelAngus]

Oil prices fell with the pandemic and the argument was Trump caused the prices to fall. What else is one to conclude?

The price of oil was up from 2016 until Covid hit. Please explain.

Its not going to work. Gas prices are Joes

 

[pknopp]

price of a barrel of oil today vs 2017?

It's up. See, honesty. Try it.

Price of oil 2017 vs 2016?

Price of oil 2018 vs 2016?

 

[jc456]

If we would quit trying to control other countries with "economic policies" surrounding energy issues, other countries would be less likely to try and undermine the dollar which would be a positive for the US in the long picture.

No one wants to consider the long picture. They want what they want right now, screw the future.

the long picture? what are you referring to?