Monday, May 05, 2008

Hilary Ratchets up clueless rhetoric


Politico: " "We’re going to go right at OPEC," she said. "They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price they’re going to put it at," she told a crowd at a firehouse in Merrillville, IN.

"That’s not a market. That’s a monopoly," she said, saying she'd use anti-trust law and the World Trade Organization to take on OPEC..."


This is how we win friends.
This is how we spurn the world.
This is how we win influence across the globe.
This is how we engage the middle east diplomatically.
This is how we win the oil supply battle??

Statistically, OPEC has little direct impact upon the US. Oil is a global commodity, its origin and processing matter little.
Quite simply, a barrel is a barrel is a barrel.
So OPEC does not dictate prices. The price of an item is dictated by the quantity of supply in relation to demand, and the supply worldwide has risen steadily over the past 2 decades.
While more supply is available, the refining bottleneck still exists, and thus the price has risen.
It's not greedy oil companies, who make less then 5% profit on a gallon of gas.
It's not greedy Mexican oil tycoons, jacking with the little guy.
It's not a cartel of minor nations regulating their supply.
In the US, it's a government that has not allowed a new refinery in 15 years, compounding a problem of rising demand.

I suppose I shouldn't be too worried. Heck, even the crazy lady herself has not proposed or joined any legislation to the effect of her current campaigning.

5 comments:

FAICA Soldier said...

That is absolute silliness. Did OPEC have a change of heart recently? If it is not a market than why weren't they charging us $150 a barrel two years ago when we had money. The only thing driving up oil costs is our slumping dollar. For a lot of other people in the world the price isn't really rising. It is a currency exchange issue. All oil is traded in US dollars. We feel comforted in knowing that we play such a central role but we don't want to deal with consequences when our over inflated dollar drops in relative value. As is clear to anyone that would read this blog, we need to solve our problems here by letting OUR market run as a free market. Welfare and corporate bailouts are at BEST a band aid on an open wound. In the end it makes the lenders nervous and market tightens. This time around it was the lenders that needed a little tightening.

Solameanie said...

We can't drill in ANWR. We can't drill off the coast of Florida. We can't build refineries. We can't build new nuclear plants. All because a tiny minority of kooks squawk at the top of their lungs.

When will we wise up?

RobertDWood said...

FAICA, I completely agree.

Joel, they do squawk loudly. :D

Wise Roots said...

The simplest reason why oil prices are high is because people are buying the oil stock. If more people bought other energy stocks, oil would fall.

by the way Robert this is Caleb

RobertDWood said...

Hey Caleb, nice to have you.