Why is gasoline cheap?

I SMELL CONSPIRACY!

:bushhitler:

Maybe its so you fucktards have a daily talking point to distract you

job done

This should be pinned, it was just the kind of info I was looking for as a reason for the recent gas price collapse.

OP, any idea what happens AFTER November elections when the repulicans steal it again? Gas prices shoot back up?

it is obvious to me why, to make the voters happy until the elections, then they will jump back up, i know this because i live in Oregon, and the local news keeps reporting that the national price of gas has dropped, except here in Oregon it is still high, that gives you a clue, because they know Oregon is a democrat state so there is no reason to make us happy. sad but true. and obvious.

I think four things came together to make oil (and gasoline) prices drop so sharply:

1. We had a mild hurricane season. That was legitimate (both the price premium before, and the drop now).

2. This time of year has weak demand, due to the end of the heavy driving season. Last year was abnormal because of Katrina/Rita. The fall refinery maintenance season hasn't started yet. Prices are usually kind of weak now.

3. Market manipulation for the election. The Republicans were getting beaten up in the polls because of gasoline prices. The Goldman Sachs thing was one of the manipulation mechanisms.

4. Easing of the rhetoric on Iran. This happened after Lamont beat Leiberman, and the British "terror scare" didn't give Bush a bump in the polls. They decided to wait until after the election. The additional drop in oil prices was a side benefit.


Yes, I think after the elections we will go back to the new normal, which is $3 a gallon and $75 a barrel. If they move on the Iran thing, we are looking at $4/$100.

I don't know why it's so cheap but I'm likin' it! I filled up at $2.11 gal today!

I bought regular at 1.99 a gallon last night.

still voting out every incumbant i can

It is so much bigger than an election.......

it is the economy stupid

"it is the economy stupid"

are you saying the economy is getting better?

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

From page 405 of Rockefeller's 2002 book Memoirs.

to force on the people a more integrated global economic structure

A few times in this journey, Mr. Savo asked the nature of their journey. Dr. Tesla remained unwilling to disclose any information, speaking rather directly to this issue. Taken into a small garage, Dr. Tesla walked directly to a Pierce Arrow, opened the hood and began making a few adjustments. In place of the engine, there was an AC motor.

This measured a little more than 3 feet long, and a little more than 2 feet in diameter. From it trailed two very thick cables which connected with the dashboard. In addition, there was an ordinary 12 volt storage battery. The motor was rated at 80 horsepower.

Maximum rotor speed was stated to be 30 turns per second. A 6 foot antenna rod was fitted into the rear section of the car.

Dr. Tesla stepped into the passenger side and began making adjustments on a "power receiver" which had been built directly into the dashboard.

The receiver, no larger than a short-wave radio of the day, used 12 special tubes which Dr. Tesla brought with him in a boxlike case.

The device had been prefitted into the dashboard, no larger than a short-wave receiver. Mr. Savo told Mr. Ahler that Dr. Tesla built the receiver in his hotel room, a device 2 feet in length, nearly 1 foot wide, a 1/2 foot high.

These curiously constructed tubes having been properly installed in their sockets, Dr. Tesla pushed in 2 contact rods and informed Peter that power was now available to drive.

Several additional meters read values which Dr. Tesla would not explain. Not sound was heard. Dr. Tesla handed Mr. Savo the ignition key and told him to start the engine, which he promptly did. Yet hearing nothing, the accelerator was applied, and the car instantly moved. Tesla's nephew drove this vehicle without other fuel for an undetermined long interval.

Mr. Savo drove a distance of 50 miles through the city and out to the surrounding countryside. The car was tested to speeds of 90 mph, with the speedometer rated to 120.

After a time, and with increasing distance from the city itself, Dr. Tesla felt free enough to speak. Having now become sufficiently impressed with the performance of both his device and the automobile.

Dr. Tesla informed his nephew that the device could not only supply the needs of the car forever, but could also supply the needs of a household - with power to spare. When originally asked how the device worked, Tesla was initially adamant and refused to speak.

Many who have read this "apocryphal account" have stated it to be the result of an "energy broadcast". This misinterpretation has simply caused further confusions concerning this stage of Tesla's work. He had very obviously succeeded in performing, with this small and compact device, what he had learned in Colorado and Shoreham.

As soon as they were on the country roads, clear of the more congested areas, Tesla began to lecture on the subject. Of the motive source he referred to "a mysterious radiation which comes out of the aether". The small device very obviously and effectively appropriated this energy.

Tesla also spoke very glowingly of this providence, saying of the energy itself that "it is available in limitless quantities".

Dr. Tesla stated that although "he did not know where it came from, mankind should be very grateful for its presence".

The two remained in Buffalo for 8 days, rigorously testing the car in the city and countryside. Dr. Tesla also told Mr. Savo that the device would soon be used to drive boats, planes, trains, and other automobiles. Once, just before leaving the city limits, they stopped at a streetlight and a bystander joyfully commented concerning their lack of exhaust fumes.

Mr. Savo spoke up whimsically, saying that they had "no engine". They left Buffalo and traveled to a predetermined location which Dr. Tesla knew, an old farmhouse barn some 20 miles from Buffalo. Dr. Tesla and Mr. Savo left the car in this barn, took the 12 tubes and the ignition key, and departed.

ok, for the last time ... while world tensions will often spike the price of oil, the oil producing cartel makes sure the price falls just below the viable price of alternative fuels ... as much as we distrust Bush, this little price game has been going on since the beginning of the auto/petrol economy early last century

so there !!!!

Gas isn't cheap. You have been conditioned. It should be in the $1.20-$1.40 range.

why ???

um. we are being over charged. Oil companies are making record profits. I do not care if you say its a supply and demand thing or whatever. The bottom line is oil companies are making huge profits.
Exxon/Mobil made a $36.1 billion profit for 2005. They are getting it cheap and selling it for way too much.

and furthermore, there is the tax thing too. Maybe next time the oil companies go before Congress they will have to swear in.

[link to www.house.gov]

buy stock in the oil companies

yea sure. I will just yank 2k out of my ass and set up an account and get right on it.

Exxon closed today at about $65 a share. Schwab charges $13 a transaction. Help yourself to as much profit as you want.

The article is interesting in terms of the % change in unleaded futures. One could argue that the index was overweighted in unleaded though given the run up in oil over the past year and it was time to lighten up the position.

I would agree the timing is nice though

So gasoline and all other oil derivatives trade off of the underlying commodity - oil.

So crude has dropped to 60 from the mid 70s and this can't be explained away by lessening gas futures in the index.

so gas does have to trade in relation to the cost of crude based on refining costs

But again dumping a lot of gas futures quickly would cause gas to be cheaper.

I need to think about this more, but if this report is accurate there would be a localized drop in gas prices in the US.

Oil is a similar price globally so one would expect after the selling that arbitragers would buy up gasoline and sell oil futures and then wait for the spread to tighten.

Because the out of whack relationship would have to correct as gas and oil prices are linked.

Keep in mind this was massive futures selling. Someone is buying the futures and ultimately taking physical delivery of the gas.

So really when you look at it the funds would have lost money in a rapid decline and the buyers such as refineries or oil companies would take physical deliver at a lower cost.

I don't think any of this is indicative of a change in actual demand for gas.

The main thing is that crude prices are lower, hence lower gas prices.

The oil market is enormous and hard to manipulate. Traders can manipulate it short-term if say a pipeline blows up.

THe best way to manipulate it other than less demand is to play with supply up or down.

I am along the lines of thinking, that our Gulf Coast didn't get slammed by Hurricanes as has been the norm in the past few years....therefore the gas that was stockpiled up for evacuations, to supply the people exiting the areas to be hit... you know how the people would of blamed the politicians, (BUSH) if there wasn't enough gas. Well, so far so good, no major storms, so therefore, a surplus in gas, and lower prices... but oh that's right blame a politician for that too ?

I wish all you dumb asses would quit calling the gas cheap.

It is not cheap you have been conditioned to think so because it went to nearly 4 bucks a gallon under these fucking asswads in power.

Wake the hell up and realize things are normalizing so they can raise their ratings. That way they can fuck us for another decade or two!

BP made $900 a second in second quarter.

fall mainainences already began.

most companies are making millions a day.

if republicans really wanted to stay in power they'd put the price where it whould be. 17-19 cents a gallon.