Jason
Pluto
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Post by Jason on Jun 11, 2008 18:38:40 GMT -4
Just because the speculators are causing artificial demand doesn't mean that increasing supply enough won't have it's normal effect on prices, and the U.S. really should increase the domestic supply anyway - to avoid giving our money to regimes that are generally abusive of their citizens.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jun 12, 2008 0:08:40 GMT -4
And how do you plan to increase it to a level that the the speculators aren't able to mop up the excess, there isn't a huge tap out there that you can just turn on more and more and more and keep getting an increased amount out of. Production has limits, refining has limits, those limits are are already being stretched in places. Saudi Arabian has pointed out that there is more then enough oil being produced to cover the demand, and it's not working to bring down prices. All increasing the supplies really does is give the very speculators we want rid of even more money in their pockets because they can invest more.
A solution to it that I just got suggested to me is to stop selling oil as futures and sell it as the actual commodity so when you buy it you have to turn up with a ship to take it away or start paying storage fees. That'd knock anyone without the distrubition networks out of the market place.
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Post by Retrograde on Jun 12, 2008 2:17:27 GMT -4
Just because the speculators are causing artificial demand Don't believe everything you read on the internet. If you really want to piss people off, ask them where all that excess supply is going. If supply exceeds demand at current prices, inventories should be growing. They aren't. The usual response is for them to become abusive and insulting. Maybe the speculators are keeping their secret stockpiles in the tunnels in New York City, along with the Chinese soldiers.
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Jason
Pluto
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Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jun 12, 2008 11:08:34 GMT -4
And how do you plan to increase it to a level that the the speculators aren't able to mop up the excess, there isn't a huge tap out there that you can just turn on more and more and more and keep getting an increased amount out of. Production has limits, refining has limits, those limits are are already being stretched in places. If the nation takes big moves to increase supply, such as what I suggested earlier, then speculators will see the attitude shift and change their investment choices to accomodate it. The threat to increase supply can have the same effect as actually increasing it, just a threat against supply (without actually reducing it) drove the price up in the first place. If, as you say, production and refining has limits, and those limits are being stretched - then that is a supply issue. Adding new wells and refineries will increase those limits, bring up supply, and cause prices to go down. There may be a supply threshold where below the threshold the excesses can be snapped up without effecting the market too much, but once supply exceeds the threshold then supply increases demand (even the demand of speculators) and prices must go down. Saudi Arabia has an interest in driving the price higher - so long as they are sure their customers will continue to buy whatever they produce a higher price benefits them.
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 12, 2008 14:05:10 GMT -4
Oil, be damned. Maybe the prices will get countries and companies to finally start investing in non-oil energy sources.
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Jason
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Post by Jason on Jun 12, 2008 14:51:48 GMT -4
And while future technologies are developed the current needs of the country can go unmet?
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Jason
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Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jun 12, 2008 16:43:12 GMT -4
In the "rather embarassing and offensive quotes from politicians" department; Omar Gadhafi, speaking of Sen. Obama's stated position the other day that an undivided Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel (the same thing that caused Hamas to withdraw their endorsement of Obama): "We suspect he may fear being killed by Israeli agents and meet the same fate as Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel's nuclear program," Gadhafi said. . . . "We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites," Gadhafi told a rally at a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli. "This will be a tragedy," Gadhafi said. "We tell him to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him because if he sticks to this inferiority complex he will have a worse foreign policy than the whites had in the past."
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Jason
Pluto
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Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jun 19, 2008 18:37:29 GMT -4
Sen. Obama yesterday: "We know that more than half of all Black children live in single-parent households. We know the statistics--that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison."
5 times as likely to commit crimes, but 20 times as likely to end up in prison? How does that work?
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Post by LunarOrbit on Jun 19, 2008 20:23:24 GMT -4
I guess not everyone in prison is actually guilty of the crime that got them there.
I think Obama just messed up. He probably meant to say "1 in 5" commit crimes and "1 in 20" end up in prison.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jun 20, 2008 3:45:36 GMT -4
Perhaps those that have fathers are better at getting away with crime.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jun 20, 2008 3:50:38 GMT -4
Actually the figures as he stated them could indeed be right, it is possible that even though they are only 5 times as likely as fathered kids to commit crimes that the crimes they commit, the likelihood of them being punished at home after being caught, the likelihood of them being a repeat offender, as well as possibly harsher sentences, all means that they are also 20 times as likely to end up going to prison that fathered kids.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jun 20, 2008 11:50:29 GMT -4
Sen. Obama: "We need a president who sees government not as a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists (note: don't you hate those low priced lobbyists?) but as the defender of fairness and opportunity for every American." Total amount of earmarks Sen. Obama has requested during his three years in the Senate: $740 million, including $1 million for the hospital where Mrs. Obama works. And a nice flip-flop from Sen. Obama on NAFTA can be found here.Sen. Obama: "Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified." A nice passive-voice version of "I pandered empty rhetoric to the voters."
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 20, 2008 17:05:06 GMT -4
Some recent quotes from McCain:
"The best American statesmen have always understood that Canada is not some adjunct to America, we are firm and fast friends. We are allies, partners in success and adversity alike, and a great deal depends on preserving that unity.
"What a blessing it is for the United States to have in Canada a neighbour we fear only on ice rinks and baseball diamonds."
Regarding Canada on 9/11: "We in America have not forgotten your kindness," he said. "And we will never forget the solidarity, compassion and friendship of Canada when it mattered most."
Regarding Canada in Afghanistan: "Together, our countries are going to see this mission through," he said. "As always in Canada's history, this nation has been willing to do hard things, even when the costs run high."
Shocking. ;D
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Jun 20, 2008 17:08:57 GMT -4
"What a blessing it is for the United States to have in Canada a neighbour we fear only on ice rinks and baseball diamonds." I like that one - that's pretty funny.
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 20, 2008 17:19:02 GMT -4
"What a blessing it is for the United States to have in Canada a neighbour we fear only on ice rinks and baseball diamonds." I like that one - that's pretty funny. He must not know that there are not very many Canadian baseball players in MLB and the Blue Jays are doing terrible this year. ;D Oh, and on the ice rinks would also include Curling. We are good at that sport.
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