National Average Price of Gasoline Hits an All-Time High

#2,078
#2,078
Rasputin_Vol said:
Sounds like you are moving in my direction... at least on this issue. Not saying that capitalism is bad, I'm saying that the people running the show are not running a capitalist system. It is a fascist/corporatist/cartelist system. And they use the Federal Reserve, law enforcement and the military to maintain order.
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I see it a bit differently - more like a protected anarchy because the protectors are making money out of the chaos. The really criminal part of it all is that retirement funds are being plundered by the same people who are destroying the concept of the stock and commodity markets. The markets are no longer a means to fund industry or a means to stabilize commodities so that someone (like a farmer) stands a chance against market variations. There needs to be reform to control market anarchy - it's basically just a new variant of the old West and gunslinger anarchy in much nicer clothes with pens and computers instead of guns. The problem is how to reform when the reformers would simply be the foxes already in the chicken coop. The people responsible for the 2008 are still in a lot of the old jobs - none of them were hanged or lost their heads as should have happened.

I believe some of the problem goes back to the Reagan era and ending pension plans, but it probably still matters little because whether retirement money is individually guided or part of a pension plan, it's all going into the investment market bonfire. Maybe the funds will be there when you need them - maybe not, but you can bet they will have been plundered several times through the pump and dump mechanism before you reach retirement.
 
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#2,080
#2,080
Rasputin_Vol said:
Long term investing is extinct. It used to be that simply putting money in the bank and drawing interest on it was a sufficient means of growing (or maintaining) wealth. Now, banks pay jack because of low interest rates. So we are left with having to gamble in the stock market or in real estate to get yields. And that is just what individual/commercial investors have to do. The big shots and high rollers that have an inside track feed the sheep misinformation with the help of the media and the politicians and push the sheep into investing in a certain direction as they front run trades.
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Those are the guys who start the dump cycle by selling - then the next tier follows the lead causing it all to tumble - the next tier may be the guys managing retirement investment. It's still the herd mentality that people panic and sell because the market is dropping that makes them victims - they are selling at fire sale prices to the people who started the dump. It's simply a pump and dump mechanism with retirement funds being plundered. Having no place else to park retirement funds makes it all possible.

The other victim is industry itself. It made sense at one time for corporate leaders to hold the company's stock. If the company did well at it's core business, the stock did well ... in theory. Doesn't work that way now. It's not how the company performs but how the market sees company manipulation to inflate stock prices - and corporate leaders are on the hook twice. They profit by making stock prices rise even if it hurts the company long term, and secondly they can easily be axed by the board of directors if the director's stock doesn't inflate as desired. Just manipulated anarchy.
 
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#2,082
#2,082
BreatheUT said:
So now Biden is blaming shipping companies?

I think the indicators that this administration wants to take over with socialist policies are not farfetched.
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And the globalists many of them in DC who presided over trade treaties that stripped jobs from US industry are the very people who put those shippers in business for real. Obviously if stuff is made elsewhere it has to be moved. If it's shipped it requires fuel - lots of fuel. Seems like globalists were largely OPEC dupes, and the consumer is stuck with the tab. Consider even the amount of oil moved around the globe rather than just being processed at home - especially right here in the US. Seems like we produce more than we use, and windup up exporting about half and importing about half - all that requires a lot of fuel to move. Seems pretty insane.
 
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#2,085
#2,085
Vol Main said:
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What does the cat have to do with the text?
 
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#2,087
#2,087
AM64 said:
Well Sylvester (as I recall) is probably quite a bit smarter than 99% of our politicians.
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Are we talking cartoons here or VN poster Orange Slice? Maybe I'm confusing him with Peppy Le Pew? I can't keep up with you guys.
 
#2,088
#2,088
Septic said:
The question is who is going to step up and start building refineries?
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No. The real question is "Why would anyone step up and build a new refinery?" One political party representing something like half of the US is dedicated to ending the product the refinery would produce, and there's at least a 50/50 chance that the party will be in a position to do just that. So why put money and effort into something that may never be completed or pay back the investment? If I were an oil exec, I'd be looking at the sunk cost in never completed and shuttered nuclear plants across the country as an example of what not to do. Those plants my very well represent what's needed for the future, but couldn't make it across the political and common damn sense divide killing this country.
 
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#2,096
#2,096
VolStrom said:
If Oil Companies Control Prices, Why Do They Ever Lose Money?
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Nice to see that the author did mention speculators. I remember reading a few years ago that crude may change hands several times while being transported across the ocean - each time increasing the final price. Of course, nobody seems to be talking much about what OPEC is doing to manipulate supply and cost. If you really want to get into price fixing and culprits, there's no better place to point the finger than OPEC.
 
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