Originally Posted by TheIncredibleRox
A) You know who "oil speculators" are? The same people who own Exxon Mobil. You. Wolf. My parents. My state-sponsored university. The mailworker's pension fund. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. You don't seem to grasp this.
I heard that Exxon Mobil was buying up it's own stock with their record profits. IR, who do you think owns more Exxon stock, me, you, or the CEO of Exxon?
I'm not a factor on the oil speculation Wall Street scene. The movers and shakers are, the ones buying on margin, playing the wall street game, the day traders. I'm just a gnat on the elephant's ass.
B) What does it matter what positions they buy? What this author is referring to as 'gaming the market' is simply what any investor is doing whether trading stocks, bonds, currencies, or commodities; managing risk, making educated bets on the direction of the market, and hedging. What about that is unethical? And how is it ethical that we should somehow artificially limit those who are smarter, comparatively, than the rest of the market?
That's like saying it's ok for smart people to rip off dumb, poor people, and in fact that you favor that kind of activity! Ethics? Is the mortgage crisis ethical? All the foreclosures? Once again, IR, you line up with the wealthy white Republicans against everyday middle class and poor people. Your choice. Where's your heart? We know your brain is all about making money. The ends justifies the means. Who said that? Machiavelli? It sounds like you support him!
C) Speculation, in and of itself, is not the reason why your gas is expensive: the reason the speculation is going in the direction it is, is because there is a perception that there exists an enormous gap between what is being demanded and what is being supplied. We have enormous oil resevouirs in this country that we haven't tapped. Tapping them would bring down both our domestic price of oil and assuage the extreme speculation.
Drilling. That's the Republican answer. As if drilling on the coast of America or in Anwar (time now to mention the evil Environmentalists) would make a dent in this crisis. How much oil do we get from the middle east anyway? That would be worth a google.
I understand economics. Incredible, do you understand anything about human nature? Greed? Have you studied history? The Great Depression? The stock market crash? Could we have won the Vietnam War? Was that a good war? Was the war in Iraq a good one? And what is winning? Do you ever ask yourselves those questions while you're balancing your checkbook?
Do you understand anything about economics, Newman?
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