OPEC “Powerless To Bring Down Prices”
For over a hundred years, Big Oil and Bankers have been taking Americans for a ride and they intend to continue to do so, if we allow them to pin the blame on OPEC and US.
"OPEC's not pumping enough!"
"Americans are not buying enough to support increased supply!"
"Environmental regs are too costly!" Bla, bla, bla . . .
Nothing can be further from the Truth.
Ministers from 65 countries, including [the US] and members of [OPEC], will attend the Doha meeting of the International Energy Forum [from] April 22 to 24.* * *
Britain's finance minister Gordon Brown, speaking in Washington, voiced the thoughts of many consuming nations with a call to OPEC to increase its oil output to rein in prices.
OPEC ministers will hold informal discussions here on April 24 but, with the group already pumping close to the limits of its capacity, it seems powerless to bring down prices.
"The genie is out of the bottle and OPEC cannot put it back into the bottle because OPEC did not take it out," Libya's top oil official Shokri Ghanem told reporters.
He said fears of U.S. military action against Iran, the world's fourth biggest crude oil exporter, had added up to $15 to the cost of a barrel of oil.
"Fears?" It's not fear that's driving this engine - it's GREED!!!
Few expect the latest talks to end a four-year rally, ignited by strong demand from the United States and Asia and underinvestment in energy infrastructure over the past decade."Shared responsibility to invest?!!" Now, I've heard everything!
A global shortage of refinery capacity for transport fuels that must meet tighter environmental regulations and lower supply from Nigeria, Iraq and Venezuela has added impetus.
"The problem is a lack of policy and planning in consuming countries. They have always been concentrating on the financial earnings of oil," one OPEC delegate said.
United Arab Emirates' Oil Minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli said consumers and producers bore a shared responsibility to invest in new production and refineries.
Not only are they bleeding us at the pumps, but now they want us to invest in our own demise!
Either that, or give them a money-back guarantee!
Good God! They must be sniffing too much gas!Consumers want more oil. Producers want to be sure investing in new fields will pay off.
"One side is saying 'guarantee supply' and the other is saying 'guarantee demand'," [said] Algerian Energy and Mining Minister [ahead of the talks.]
"Each one is asking the other to do something he can't unless the other makes the first step. It's a vicious circle."
They want guaranteed profits without any risk -- typical moneylending mentality!
And that's not all . . .
The International Monetary Fund called on Wednesday for the United States, consumer of more than 40 percent of the world's gasoline and a quarter of its oil, to consider raising fuel tax.This is the same IMF that wants our dollar to depreciate and demands countries privatize their water as a condition for loans.
But that idea has few fans in Washington.
The IMF's call on oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia to eliminate obstacles to investment [to allow nation plundering] is also unlikely to get a positive response any time soon.
"There is no existing international mechanism, other than the world oil market, to address the instability of oil prices," academic John Mitchell said in a recent paper.THAT is NOT the problem!
The PROBLEM is that the "world oil market" is not a FREE market! It's under oligopoly control by Big Oil and Bankers!
Wakeup America - before it's too late.
posted by qrswave @ Friday, April 21, 2006
9 Comments:
Here's a meme which needs to be spread: tapeworm economy. That's what it is. People have been describing its workings for years, but no one till now has defined it so clearly with a simple metaphor.
http://karavans.typepad.com/karavans/2006/04/the_tapeworm_ec.html
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
You might want to read that site to get a different perspective on oil. With regards to refinery capacity the conspiracy theory there says that it is an intentional choice by the oil companys not to waste any money on more refinerys when global production is already at or near its peak.
Okay, you want proof that Big Oil is a disgusting monopoly, where oil prices are not responsive to amount produced by oil producing countries?
Look at what happened after Hurricane Katrina. THE DAY AFTERWARDS, prices across the South shot up to as much as $5.00 a gallon, and even higher. At that point, it was clearly too early after the storm to have affected supply - especially in places like Atlanta. Yet the prices were this high anyway. How is this possible? Easy. Gas stations started charging whatever they wanted, knowing there was a fear of supply. They exploited our psychological fear, and it was later revealed, earned massive profits in light of Hurricane Katrina.
My blood was boiling when I thought of those poor families who had to flee New Orleans, who were barely able to afford to fill up their tank of gas to go back to their homes and survey the damage after the hurricane. I should know - I have some friends who were in that situation.
How is it that Exxon Mobil is the #1 most profitable company in America at the moment? No company should be able to earn such massive profits by selling something minerals extracted from the earth of OTHER COUNTRIES. Clearly there's something afoot.
Energy, Food, Communications, Healthcare (pharmaceuticals included), and Banking and Insurance should be NON-PROFIT.
I definetly agree all those sectors should be non-profit and is nothing else their should be a cap on CEO total earnings.
That the corporate terrorists murdered people by charging 5 dollars a gallon for gas is proof that the corporate terrorist are murders and terrorists, who belong in jail and also the reason we need a revolution. Legalized terrorism and murder thanks to the 2 good old boy's clubs.
and miss r I think overall your comment is good, but many poor people don't have cars. The good old boy's clubs in power have made sure that poor people have to take buses and in an emergency are left to die so that they can own an extra SUV.
Revolution,
Citisucks
Citisucks,
I never meant to imply that poor people all have cars, but many poor people did escape New Orleans in an car and found it very hard to finance the trip back.
I also am not sure that all the sectors mentioned should be nonprofit, but I do think that the CEO salaries should be capped at a proportion to the salaries paid of the common worker in the company. There is no reason why CEOs should earn 100 times the salary of the average worker - they don't do 100 times the work. Maybe 4-5 times the average salary for good leadership makes sense, but certainly nothing above that. (and I am being generous when I say 4-5 times the salary)
I don't think food should be non-profit, as it gives an incentive to not grow food. Also, foood is relatively cheap as it is, and we have to pay farmers to NOT grow food. (which I think is just bullshit) In my ideal world, we would not be subsidizing farmers to NOT grow food.
Big Pharma has, as a matter of fact, produced some amazing innovations. The problem, however, is the system of patents. I don't think the problem necessarily is that drugs are made for profit. I am not convinced it's a good idea to get rid of patents, but I do think that major changes are needed there.
Communications are only expensive because of the unruly patent and copyright system.
Let's see...banking and insurance...I think the profits should be maxed by usury laws. I think that we need to set limits on the max amount of interest that can be charged, and allow easier access to the bankruptcy system. I don't know if it's good to make these non-profit, as historically, interest has always existed. (and was charged by loan sharks if banned by the law) Making it illegal to charge interest increases the power of loan sharks.
Energy should be non-profit, given we are importing energy from another country, and allow the middleman, who literally does nothing, to get tons of benefits. In fact, the massive profits of the oil companies, who do nothing to help America, is one of the greatest rackets we have.
Just my two cents.
Well I agree with a lot of what you said about a lot of the things, but not big pharma. I don't care about scientific/health care discoveries because they are useless to me. I currenlty don't even have any real access to an antibiotic, unless I want to spend hundreds of dollars to go to an ER. Health Care should be free and paid for by taxing the greedy selfish rich. There should be an evil tax for the corporate terrorists.
Revolution,
Citisucks
you don't need to tax anyone.
Free money, knowledge, and technology from monopolies and watch prices plummet.
This country's not free. It's a socialist state, replete with economic controls, under the guise of democracy.
Citisucks,
I think patent reform will rectify most of the problems with Big Pharma (as I stated). The problem is a repressive patent system which encourages the horrible actions of Big Pharma.
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