Crude Oil hits $120

[Binky Bainbridge]

Crude oil price passes $120 a barrel mark for the first time

By Sean O'Grady
Tuesday, 6 May 2008

The price of oil leapt through the $120 barrier for the first time in New York yesterday. A rise of $3 during the day was sufficient for the commodity to record another landmark in its seemingly inexorable rise.

Futures touched a record $120.21 a barrel in intra-day trading. The price of crude has almost doubled in the past year, and its rise has been astonishing. Only five years ago, the Opec target price for crude was $22 to $28 a barrel; a decade ago it was about $10 a barrel. The president of Opec, the Algerian energy minister Chakib Khelil, indicated recently that the price could hit $200.

Link: Crude oil price passes $120 a barrel mark for the first time - Business News, Business - The Independent

In Britain we're already paying $10 a gallon, now there is talk of it reaching $13 a gallon - and to cap it all our government is thinking of increasing it further with a "green tax"!

[Justoo]

If you were having elections, as we are, would they offer to drop the tax for long enough to get elected before they raise it?

Of course it is only an offer. They will debate the merits until the election, then drop it.

[Binky Bainbridge]

So many new taxes are being introduced here in Britain under the "Green Agenda". It makes me very cynical about the whole issue as I believe they're simply riding the green agenda in an effort to squeeze more tax from us.

Is it the same in the US?

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by Binky Bainbridge

So many new taxes are being introduced here in Britain under the "Green Agenda". It makes me very cynical about the whole issue as I believe they're simply riding the green agenda in an effort to squeeze more tax from us.

Is it the same in the US?

YES.....the "green thing" is all about taxes and control of money. First the gov strikes fear about global warm then they tax you to "fix it". When they have your money then they can control who gets it and where it goes. It is what the Democrats do...redistribute income..plus it helps keep their voting base...those with their hands out.

[SGT T.]

I just want to know what changed. Seriously. I mean, when I was back on R&R in October, it was $2.50-ish a gallon, and six months later its up over a dollar more? What changed in six months? This whole thing is silly. If I didn't live in KS, where you kinda have to have a car...

[Justoo]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

YES...When they have your money then they can control who gets it and where it goes. It is what the Democrats do...redistribute income...

It seems the bulk of the money from wind energy is headed to Europe. Iberdrola ... Gamesa... Vestas...Acciona Energia...

[88-31-10]

Ain't it great!
Filled up the work van yesterday for $101.00
Damn Chinese enviornmentalists.

[JayhawkMom]

Ha! I filled up the Mini Cooper for $35.00.........

[Justoo]

Originally Posted by JayhawkMom

Ha! I filled up the Mini Cooper for $35.00.........

Filled up the S-10 for $38.00. Gas war in Hays. I paid $3.27.9

[Binky Bainbridge]

Is the economics of a free market working in terms of oil? I say this in view of the fact that hedge funds have been heavily speculating in future oil prices and thus have been driving up prices against the reality of what's happening in the market place. If this is the case shouldn't the US government be stepping in to sort this abuse out that is affecting us all for the financial benefit of a few ultra-rich billionaires?

Today's oil prices are really determined is done by a process so opaque only a handful of major oil trading banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley have any idea who is buying and who selling oil futures or derivative contracts that set physical oil prices in this strange new world of “paper oil.”

With the development of unregulated international derivatives trading in oil futures over the past decade or more, the way has opened for the present speculative bubble in oil prices.

Since the advent of oil futures trading and the two major London and New York oil futures contracts, control of oil prices has left OPEC and gone to Wall Street. It is a classic case of the “tail that wags the dog.”

A June 2006 US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on “The Role of Market Speculation in rising oil and gas prices,” noted, “… there is substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased prices.”

What the Senate committee staff documented in the report was a gaping loophole in US Government regulation of oil derivatives trading so huge a herd of elephants could walk through it. That seems precisely what they have been doing in ramping oil prices through the roof in recent months.

The Senate report was ignored in the media and in the Congress.

Perhaps 60% of today's Crude Oil Price is Pure Speculation :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website