The cost of food is highly dependent on the cost of fuel.Ya, and food production also peaked in 2005...WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE!
I was being sarcastic!Dilbert_X wrote:
The cost of food is highly dependent on the cost of fuel.Ya, and food production also peaked in 2005...WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE!
As fuel availability falls the cost of food will rise.
Unless we go back to using horses.
Look forward to your weekly wage being spent on food an not much else.
Last edited by SoC./Omega (2008-05-30 08:52:47)
Not with oil there isn't. Oil is a different circumstance.Phrozenbot wrote:
There are things governments and it's agencies can do, such as the CFTC acknowledging market manipulation, however chooses not to do so. In this example, silver. But it's rather silly to say speculation dictates the exchange rates or currencies. Central banks have the most influence over them, and they choose to keep them at certain "favorable" exchange rates for the global economy.Bertster7 wrote:
A) You can't regulate speculation. The financial markets have substantially more power than any nation. They decide the price of commodities and of currency and of everything else. When the government goes up against the financial sector they lose, like with Black Wednesday in the UK. It cannot be done.
I'm not talking about self-perpetual speculation. Your theory that demand for oil is going to remain even is just plain wrong. Look at global oil consumption and predicted future oil consumption, look at the rate at which the global population is rising. There is currently a 3% annual rise in demand for oil. That's a lot, especially considering that we are expected to see a 2% annual decline in natural oil production rates (those figures come direct from the US government - a speech by Cheney in fact) which could begin as soon as 2010. This rise in demand and decline in supply will inflate prices. 2010 is short term and so short term speculators will be drawn to investing in oil, which will exacerbate these price rises. Even if we do not hit peak oil then (the realistic window begins about now till about 2030), the predictions are there which will draw in the investors.Phrozenbot wrote:
Prices will continue to rise because of inflation mainly, and as oil becomes more expensive here in the US, people here will drive less. In fact they already are. However, China and the rest of Asia is picking up on the demand, so it sort of evens out concerning supply and demand.Bertster7 wrote:
B) The price will continue to go up because demand will continue to go up and supply won't. In fact it will very soon go into terminal decline. This is not scaremongering, but well demonstrated fact. Speculation fuels these price increases and the price increases fuel speculation. This is not to say we would not be facing increased prices without speculation, because of the supply/demand balance. The (very near) future scarcity of the resource means that it is an attractive buy for speculators and this further inflates the price.
What I'm getting at, is that speculation isn't the cause of the price rise, but it acts as a feedback effect, making the situation worse. But that is how the markets work. Changing that would mean changing the entire global economic system, which is virtually impossible.
Oil prices are set to rise, forever, until it's gone. There is very little anyone can do about this.
Your theory that speculation is self-perpetual and will continue forever is false. You need to understand that these speculators are "short", not "long" on oil. They purchase oil, pushing up the price and others will follow because oil starts to look more attractive, and then the major speculators sell at some point to make a profit, which relieves the price of oil. They don't plan to hold onto their oil for years to come. However, if mass speculation brings more mass speculation, then you have a bubble in which case it will burst and the price of oil will collapse.
Most of the speculation occurs on paper. These hedge funds don't store the oil they purchase in some warehouse, they just receive paper saying whoever they bought it from will "promise" to give it to them on demand. So the promise is as good as how honorable the seller is, in which case they may not even have what they are selling to you, or at the time you request your assets. They are sometimes jokingly called naked shorts, and it has lead to many markets to be terribly skewed. It's flabbergasting.
I do agree though the overall trend for the price of oil is up.
Last edited by Bertster7 (2008-05-31 02:48:49)
Kmarion wrote:
Europe must be apocalyptic.FallenMorgan wrote:
Anyways, it made me realize that gas is getting expensive to the point where some people can't survive.
Last edited by Cheeky_Ninja06 (2008-05-31 13:29:24)
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2008-06-01 00:51:09)
Last edited by LividBovine (2008-06-01 01:12:53)
OMG 4 dollar a gallon.FallenMorgan wrote:
Today at the gas station we saw a down and out looking one-eyed fellow. He was sitting on a curb around the gas station, holding an empty gas can. He had a truck full of scrap metal, and we imagined he needed gas money in order to take the stuff to a scrap yard and make money to live off of. We felt bad so we gave him around a total of ten bucks or so. He bought gas - we saw him buy gas, he didn't use it for alcohol or anything. The gas station didn't sell alcahol - it wasn't a mini-mart thing.
Anyways, it made me realize that gas is getting expensive to the point where some people can't survive. Here, it's like 4 dollars a gallon. It's the oil companies who do this. It has nothing to do with the scarcity of oil. In general, the oil companies need to be regulated. If it gets up to say, ten dollars a gallon, nobody can work.
Discuss.
I paid $2.19 last fill up here in the hella filthy dirty southHurricane2k9 wrote:
I saw regular gas for $2.99 today.
i remember when $1.50 for regular was considered priceynukchebi0 wrote:
$3.09 here. Its rather sad that anyone could perceive $3.09 as cheap.
A gallon of milk, normal milk is like 3 bucks. If you want organic natural milk it's insane. 5 bucks for the smaller carton-types (I'll be damned if I can remember how much milk comes in them. Half a gallon?).TheAussieReaper wrote:
Remember when you used to be able to compare the price of milk to gas and it was pretty similar?
