Quote:
Originally posted by turbo6bar
The oil market is driven by speculation and fear. Oil could go up another 40% OR it could go down 40%. Now would be a good time to take some profits off the table. Betting on further increases in oil would be betting on a global slowdown or recession.
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Interesting side-note: try substituting "housing" for "oil" and "regional" for "global" in the above passage. It still makes sense. . .
Back to the topic at-hand. . .
This happens every time the gas prices go up and it seems to happen every year at the start of summer and again right before Labor Day and a little bit before the winter holidays. Every time, people scream and yell about price gouging and you get the "we're-mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore" vibe from the comments here on the Internet and at coffee shops, watercooler, etc. Nothing ever happens. People have a retarded attention span and after a couple of weeks they'll get numb to it, find something new to complain about and fork over the new asking price without really grumbling about it. Sorry to over-simplify this, but obviously this is what the oil companies count on and they're clearly positioning themselves to take advantage of it (yes, I agree a lot of this pricing is deliberate and the result of some fixing going on, although not so much to REALLY overvalue the product that much).
Bottom line is in a few weeks people will be right back to driving (and buying) their H2s and simply forking over the green on demand. Any talk of meaningful forays into alternative energy are academic discussions at best and laughable in the context of a consumption-driven, oil-baron-led American society at worst. Sadly. The individual or society that survives long-term is the one that PRODUCES, not the one that consumes. Our economy is almost entirely based on consumption right now and the attitude towards oil reflects it. We don't value money, we value spending. Big difference. China knows better.