quote Originally posted by dennis_6: Doubt it has very little to do with driving less, it has to do with the economic collapse. Put it this way, if gas remained high right now, and it was already proven to hurt the economy, it would possibly put us into another great depression. So the powers that be, told the oil companies, speculators, etc.. to back off. Why produce alot to make a little, when you can produce a little and make alotl. Path of least resistance.

That's fairly absurd. First of all, Google is your friend. People are driving BILLIONS of miles LESS than they were a year ago in the US. Simple economics says that if demand drops, the market can become saturated with supply and prices will have to drop to attract customers. The people who run multi-billion dollar oil companies aren't fools. If people are in fact driving less, which they are, then keeping prices high or raising them will only further reduce demand and stick you with more unsold product, costing you money. They don't want to encourage this trend of less driving and hypermiling, because it's costing them money. They're dropping prices because they need to either get demand back up or get rid of excess product, or both. The "powers that be" don't have or need any of the sway you insinuate, the oil companies are perfectly capable of figuring this out themselves.

lol, reallty? Thats why OPEC is having "emergency" meetinsg on how to drive the price back up ? right now? Wow, I am glad I am absurd, thanks for showing me the light. Clearly I am too simple minded to tell when I am being gouged. lol

BTW, as an over the road truck driver who, is always on the roads, I have not seen any less people out here at all, none, not even a little bit of decline. I love all those mirages, you know the traffic jams, that are not really there. Can't be they we are driving less. Out in the middle of no where I still see gas hogs towing with plates from half the country away. Believe what you will, but I am out here and there are more people on the roads if anything.

[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 10-14-2008).]

Gouging is when you charge more then the market value for an item. OPEC isn't gouging, it is setting the market value. But only in the supply side economics venue that it controls some of the oil market. Not all oil comes from OPEC. Not all the price of oil comes from OPEC. There are non-supply factors.

Hmm, so you know its not disinformation, because you looked it up on google? Oh, and I am a college educated trucker, btw. I really do love this, because you look something up on google it has to be true. Wow, look I just found a cult, it has to be true. They claim to be experts. Can't be disinformation to protect thier interest. WOW, I am enlightened, thanks so much!


Get out on the expressway some time, and tell me its a ghost town out here now. LMAO. Traffic jams in major cities are just as long as they always were. hmmm, but google says its not so, so it must be my imagination.

I think some of this is due to the fact that the futures market is about to get regulated. Frankly it is about dam time. Investors are going to both bail out and try and cause upticks as they go. Seams I remember somebody saying that if you think we will ever see oil down to 80 your dreaming.
I believe it will come down to 65 eventually and then fluctuate 10 bucks here and there as supply issues arise such as storms, violence and minor market manipulation.
Now the price of gas? Hmm, probably won't go as low as when oil was at these prices before.

quote Originally posted by Red88FF: I think some of this is due to the fact that the futures market is about to get regulated. Frankly it is about dam time. Investors are going to both bail out and try and cause upticks as they go. Seams I remember somebody saying that if you think we will ever see oil down to 80 your dreaming.

That would be me--but misquoted. What I said was that we might see oil drop below $100/bbl ocassionaly, but not for long periods of time, and that $60-70/bbl oil would be a very very rare occurance if it happened at all. $60/bbl oil being the norm again will not happen. I believe oil futures today was at $81/bbl.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 10-14-2008).]

quote Originally posted by dennis_6: Hmm, so you know its not disinformation, because you looked it up on google? Oh, and I am a college educated trucker, btw. I really do love this, because you look something up on google it has to be true. Wow, look I just found a cult, it has to be true. They claim to be experts. Can't be disinformation to protect thier interest. WOW, I am enlightened, thanks so much! Get out on the expressway some time, and tell me its a ghost town out here now. LMAO. Traffic jams in major cities are just as long as they always were. hmmm, but google says its not so, so it must be my imagination.

Wow you went to collage. That makes your anecdotal "proof" so much more meaningful!. Where did I say I looked it up on google? Just because you don't know what your talking about don't try to dismiss me with your dishonest tactics. They don't just claim to be experts they actually are. Unlike you who is a nobody when it comes to the subject. You are just a paranoid fool who doesn't have a clue about how the markets work. Your strawman arguments fail common sense. Tell me mister college educated trucker since when is millions of people cutting back on their driving equal to no one driving? But of course one guy with anecdotal "proof" who claims paranoid disinformation when gas companies world wide are selling less and have the numbers to back it up is right. Yup that one has it all he needs. So why aren't you out there correcting these lies? You can take down The Wall Street Journal. You know the truth. Or more likely you don't have a clue.

Ok whatever, your right. I am going back to being a dumb trucker. Of course the experts who do studies and have never been in a factory, know more about how the product is made than the actual line workers. They have conducted studies based on the information the factories corporate offices provide, and there is zero chance the corporate office lied for thier best interest. The factory worker who sees the product assembled from the begining to the end is a nobody. He doesn't have a prestigous job, he therefore is ignorant, and what he says is irrelevant. I will go back to my ignorant job of staying compliant to a 500 page regulation book and getting a thousand mile load on time with a margin of +/- 15 minutes. Thats simple too. Forgive us common workers, our jobs require an iq of 25. We shouldn't comment on world affairs.

quote Originally posted by dennis_6: Ok whatever, your right. I am going back to being a dumb trucker. Of course the experts who do studies and have never been in a factory, know more about how the product is made than the actual line workers. They have conducted studies based on the information the factories corporate offices provide, and there is zero chance the corporate office lied for thier best interest. The factory worker who sees the product assembled from the begining to the end is a nobody. He doesn't have a prestigous job, he therefore is ignorant, and what he says is irrelevant. I will go back to my ignorant job of staying compliant to a 500 page regulation book and getting a thousand mile load on time with a margin of +/- 15 minutes. Thats simple too. Forgive us common workers, our jobs require an iq of 25. We shouldn't comment on world affairs.

So you work for the oil industry as a gas retailer? Because that's what your failure of an analogy would imply?

I love how you keep trying to make it look like some is calling you dumb and have a low IQ. Can you point out exactly who that was? Or is it something you made up? You can comment all you want but at least be honest enough so that when a person tells you that you are wrong and how you are wrong just accept it instead of making things up.

All you have is your anecdotal "proof" but not a single hard data point. And you call those who do have hard data as being dishonest.

You are right and the entire industry and independent auditors are all wrong....

quote Originally posted by maryjane: That would be me--but misquoted. What I said was that we might see oil drop below $100/bbl ocassionaly, but not for long periods of time, and that $60-70/bbl oil would be a very very rare occurance if it happened at all. $60/bbl oil being the norm again will not happen. I believe oil futures today was at $81/bbl.

don't remember it being you, I know somebody said I was "dreaming".

In any event, not important enough to look it up. It is fun to speculate, and hear others do the same. My opinion on this is certainly no more valid than anybody else's, maybe less in some cases, but it's mine dammit! heh.

As far as the press reporting miles driven a year? heck, how can they really do that, Nobody asked me, heh. I have a hard time believing almost everything the press tells me. Between Dan Rather commit fraud, the war effort, the pathetic coverage of Obama, the press ruining WAMU on and on, I just don't listen.
I have driven less myself. Not so much that I can't afford too, it just pisses me off so I buy less gas. What gets me is the cost of mowing my lawn
I certainly have not noticed any drop in traffic myself. I don't doubt that people are driving less, but how much compared to the total?

Back to my irrelevant opinion. I think the biggest reasons for the drop in oil are threat of regulation of the futures market and the Saudis pledging to pump as much as the world needs, which in itself is amusing when you look at the amount and what amounts the Dems swear won't make a difference in regards to opening new wells here,

quote Originally posted by Red88FF: As far as the press reporting miles driven a year? heck, how can they really do that, ,

They do it by multiplying the the difference in gallons of gas sold by the average MPG vehicles get.

quote Originally posted by Phranc: They do it by multiplying the the difference in gallons of gas sold by the average MPG vehicles get.

I suppose that is a good enough way to do it. I would rather they just say X gallons, which I suppose they may have and I just didn't listen. As I said, I have been driving less but also have not kept any quantity of gas around the house this year.

Oil falling again today after yesterdays brief rise.

I do believe my point was that Americans have not cut back enough to make the price fall this sharply this quickly. I believe the time frame was in question. No mortgage crisis 4.00 a gallon, about a month after, all the sudden gas prices fall drastically. Did Amercians just stop driving since that event occured? No. That is the point I was/am making, and you want to turn it into over a year. Even if you do take that timeframe, how come driving less, hasn't caused a major fall in oil prices before the bailout?

The biggest event that happened during this timeframe was the end of summer vacation for kids. Americans drive more during the time their children are out of school.