"The price of gas is killing me" -- that is the message in emails that are coming in from a dozens of intelligent, upscale professionals from New Jersey to LA, encouraging a chain of email recipients (people they know or do biz with) to not just stop buying gas from Exxon and Mobil for the month of April and May but permenantly.
The rationale is that this will somehow create a price war and drive the cost of gas back down to $1.30 per gallon. They hope to send this message to an ever increasing number of people until the purchase boycott becomes a national campaign, thus impacting the sales of gas , causing brands E and M to knuckle under and drop the price.
This is probably just an expression of frustration and futility. The price of gas, ironically enough, has little to do with the retailers at the pump or even OPEC, but with the Mercantile Exchange in New York and Dubai where union and retirement funds, investment banks on Wall Street, foreign investors, insurance companies, and speculaters are all "playing the futures market" -- all betting their entrusted funds on the future price of crude. Most of our crude oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venzuela so one has to wonder if OPEC is really the culprit or even Big Oil--maybe it our leaders in Washington who cannot seem to decide on anything including how to deal with why the people who have most of the oil hate us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
So few Americans understand much about commodity markets and forex. The media seems to understand even less.
Suffice it to say that rampant speculation, new int'l demand and forex revaluations (thanks Geo-Geo Bush for such a weak $) have changed the playing field. Most oil companies -- even the majors-- have long since hedged themselves out of short term changes in price. People with little or NO understanding of how oil becomes gasoline and how commodities make their way through the US supply chains are typically the most outspoken about oil and gas prices.
The reality is WORLDWIDE oil and gas prices are likely to do anything but increase. The US -- even after this increase we have just experienced-- STILL HAS THE LOWEST PRICED FUEL OF ANY DEVELOPED COUNTRY. Wake up.
Post a Comment