Think of where we were 12 months ago, comrades…

[Old Bookaroo]

Dave44:

When George Bush was running for President, he said if gas prices started to go up he'd call his friends over in Saudi Arabia and get them to bring them down.

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo

 

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[Native Floridian]

Well, actually, his actions did.

The simple threat of cranking up drilling in this country was enough to cause OPEC to drop their prices in 2008 in an attempt to save their sacred cow. They realized that their exorbitant prices were driving the U.S. to once again drill at home.

You can whine and say it isn't true, but it is a FACT ... I've posted the numbers and graphs before.

When the Scandaldaddy came into power, he backed off of the plans for self sufficiency in terms of oil production. The price drop slowed and on or about January 20, 2009, returned to their meteoric rise.

With no incentive to lower prices, and no threat of increased competition in the U.S., OPEC (Hmmmm... aren't most of its members Muslim countries?) felt free to raise prices back to previous levels. Only when sales began to slump did the price come down for a while ... but they're heading back up.

Since his policies caused the rise in prices, the Scandaldaddy effectively set the gas prices.

Chad seriously?

You are welcome to your opinion

For everyone else - the collapse of oil prices in 2008 was economic, not political.

Everyone understands that oil is a commodity in which price is set by supply and demand, correct?

And everyone remembers all the way back to 2008 when the economy collapsed?

And everyone understands that collapsed economies use less oil? less demand equals lower price.

And everyone understands that the price of oil collapsed before obama was president?

If everyone understands this then we can understand that obama had no effect on oil prices.


Just to cover the base - the initial drop in oil prices fully six months before obama became president and even before he was elected was caused by speculation in the oil commodities markets. prices had peaked and one trader had amassed such a large short position that the NYMEX issued a margin call. unable to cover, the firm collapsed into insolvency as it's entire super sized position in oil was liquidated. This was the first leg down in oil prices. The NYMEX to stabilize the market then increased the margin requirement for all traders. This caused more sales as many could not or simply would not meet the higher standard. By this time (August of 2008) the first cracks of the financial crisis started to spread driving down prices further as more traders fled the market. Finally, the financial crisis drove down demand sticking a fork in the oil market.

As the world's economies have come back online so have oil prices. More demand equals higher prices.

Or just go with Chad's version of events.

 

[packerbacker]

gasoline has gone down here recently and I figure it's because everyone is shopping online for health insurance for their mandated policies instead of having to drive around and picking one out for themselves. Less demand, lower prices!