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Obama, Holder Declare War On Oil Traders, "Speculators"
And for today's case of pure unadulterated idiocy:
- ( RTR ) 04/21 02:30PM OBAMA SAYS HAS ASKED ATTORNEY GENERAL TO CREATE TEAM TO "ROOT OUT" FRAUD, MANIPULATION IN OIL MARKETS THAT COULD HIT GAS PRICES
- ( RTR ) 04/21 02:31PM OBAMA, IN PREPARED REMARKS, SAYS TEAM'S FOCUS WILL INCLUDE OIL MARKET TRADERS AND SPECULATORS
- ( RTR ) 04/21 02:31PM OBAMA SAYS WILL MAKE SURE THAT NO ONE IN OIL MARKET IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR THEIR OWN SHORT-TERM GAIN
Number of mentions of the one true satanic culprit for oil price explosion? Zero. For everything else there is scapegoating. And again. And again.
And the next question: how long before executive order XXXXX decides that it is in the national interest to sequester all black gold held in speculative accounts? And how much after that will all gold be confiscated, without prejudice for color?
h/t Chris
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ICE ICE baby...
Hey Obama... let me help you out in finding the culprits!
This is from an old article when they were merely stealing trillions...
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BP, TOT, Shell, DB and Societe General founded the Intercontinental Exchange in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate ”dark pool” trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.
A Congressional investigation into energy trading in 2003 discovered that ICE was being used to facilitate “round-trip” trades. Round-trip” trades occur when one firm sells energy to another and then the second firm simultaneously sells the same amount of energy back to the first company at exactly the same price. No commodity ever changes hands. But when done on an exchange, these transactions send a price signal to the market and they artificially boost revenue for the company. This is nothing more than a massive fraud, pure and simple.
Geology is going to win this war. The trading and monetary stuff is just trivial gobbledygook.
The party is over. The cops are coming. On horseback. Four of them.
Eventually it will, but there are trillions of barrels still out there.
Hell, the Saudi's are even cutting back production.
No shit.
Read.
http://www.forexyard.com/en/market-analysis/commodity/reduced_oil_output_has_little_impact_on_price-2011-04-20
There are hundreds of trillions of barrels "out there".
They're on Titan, a moon of Saturn.
The other barrels are more difficult to get at than Titan.
From Wikipedia
And there is plenty more in South America, and don't forget shale oil or calthrate deposits which are larger than all global oil and gas reserves.
Yes, 'unconventional' is the word you should be emphasizing. Much lower EROEI and much costlier to bring to market (read higher prices).
About $25 bucks a barrel right now but it all depends on natural gas prices which are currently in a supply side slump.
All I am saying is that there is still lots of hydrocarbons left out there children. And the current price is NOT a reflection of supply limitation.
Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. Tar sands $100 bbl breakeven and Canadians (a) don't have enough water and (b) aren't going to waste it to ramp up tar sand. News flash: Canadians don't need us. We need them.
Can't everything just be 5 dollars to dig out of the ground?
Ionic liquid recovery methods raise the EROEI dramatically. These will be the future of oil production.
Ionic liquid recovery severely degrades the dilithium crystals required. Until we work that out, 'tis but a dream.
However, reversing the polarity of the dilithium crystals would allow them to be used in a doubletalk generator. From The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold:
Suncor, the biggest player, can produce about 300K bpd from those sands.
They plan to double that in about 10 years.
That's ten years for a lousy 600K bpd. You can't do more than that because the process requires enormous amounts of water. 600K is nothing.
IT'S NOTHING. The US will be glad to have it, but it's NOTHING.
Suncor is in the driver's seat because those reserves are known and guaranteed and they already have them for decades. XOM and CVX and TOT and the other majors are desperate for reserves, and have to pay through the nose to get them.
It's all downhill from here and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Correct -- and worse: the "reserves" XOM and TOT have been buying are unprofitable horizontal shale gas. Looks okay on the books (boe reserves replacement). Air guitar, that's all it is.
You are correct, but shale gas often has some residual oil and NGLs in it. That stuff is the only thing that makes the drilling profitable, but only scarcely so.
But you're right. They report their production from that field as BOE, even though only 10% of it was oil.
The thing to watch for is the Saudi Manifa offshore development. They are **hoping** to get 700K bpd from it after several years from start of production in 2014, but it's down a couple of miles and it's underwater. And by 2014 their other fields are that much more dead.
And so . . . it's clear even the Saudis have to go offshore down miles to find something to sell. How can people not see what's going on? No one . . . NO ONE drills down 2 miles off shore if they can find all they want more conveniently.
Yes, and I have a bridge in Alaska that I will sell you. It is sometimes difficult to fathom how many of us revert back to the pie-in-the-sky predictions and 'feelings' that all will be solved by the next big find or the next great technology. I wish people would do their homework. I'll post again what I posted recently:
'Just a question.......does anybody here think that the TPTB will ever admit that there is a peak and decline of oil production? IMO no, they won't. Why? Because of the havic that it would cause in the markets and society in general. So, how do you keep things going? ....think extend and pretend, using somebody else's money. Has anybody here seen the patterns of this game over the last two years? Not enough energy to continue exponential growth to service debt etc. But, we can't address the real problems because if we do then we get chaos.'
So, in other words, the sheople will continue to be fed a diet of 'pie-in-the-sky' with a unhealthy side dish of 'Yes, we can' instead of any information based in reality.
+ 7 seals.
Exactly. The price rise is 100% speculation; it can be defeated tomorrow morning by presidential decree. But the "powers" see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, of the ICE. Obama is counting on your ignorance and passivity to get away with this bullshit.
Close the Chicago commodity trading
I bet all of this is going to give Santelli a case of the rants.
I LOVE TO WATCH SANTELLI RANT!
ONE RANT EVEN STARTED THE TEA PARTY.
Ron Paul started the TP, you tard.
Rick santellis rant for for a new tea party style rebellion was watched live by milions. Thats when people started demanding to teabag the whitehouse.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Santelli merely picked up on the ALREADY vibrant and rapidly growing Tea Party movement started by grassroots members of the Ron Paul presidential campaign, and then passed it off as his own creation. The fact that so many (really, ALL) of the corporate-controlled media parrots and shills repeatedly reinforced the meme that Santelli's rant gave birth to the Tea Party movement only tells me that it was all a pre-planned propaganda campaign and attempt to subvert and co-opt the REAL Tea Party movement.
Make participation in ICE oil contracts illegal for all American entities, directly or indirectly. Follow up with one quick proscecution; (somebody will try to end run), lead off one set of principals in handcuffs, and everyone will say, well, it's not worth it. job done.
Here's some more of o's business friendly bs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/business/21boeing.html?_r=2&ref=todays...
would these "speculators" include the ibanks that leased oil tankers and floated them around?
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/bret_boteler_on_oil_gas/archive/20...
The tankers held Iranian oil dodging sanctions.
They were emptied in December of last year.
"Inventory" is underground. It's getting smaller every day.
Gold speculators will get raped eventually when the govt calls in the gold, but between now and then there won't be much political pressure to crack down on them.
After all, how could a small group of weirdo money fetishists trading an intrisically worthless shiny metal back and forth effect the economy?
then we'll leave. with our golds.
When Bush is beginning to look like a genius compared to Obama you know things are getting REALLY bad.
+1
Better than Bush or not, with this latest tidbit, Obama has officially earned the title "two bit ass clown."
It takes a unique form of narcissism to make claims like this with a straight face.
...and yet he does so pretty much every day.
At this point, I seriously think he has some sort of personality disorder. It's like he has some sort of defense mechanism that allows him to say or do anything in good faith...no matter how ridiculous it is...even if it completely contradicts something he previously said/did.
Sure, like 99% of all politicians do the same thing - but he takes it to a different level.
It's actually somewhat fascinating.
Hey, I want to be an oil speculator!
I want to live a life of danger!
Buy uso in your IRA
I hope OBAMA goes after the ethanol produces for driving up the cost of CornHOLES. then go after the Manhattan landlords for charging to much rent in city .., I want him to go after the Yankees for the price of tickets, and finally if he has time for those dam teachers making 50k a year killing!!!
They need somebody to blame. History has kind of ruined blaming it on the Jews. Politics won't allow anybody to say a bad word about Muslims. Obviously Capitalists are of the devil except you can't explicitly call them that.
Empty gas pumps coming to a corner near you Comrade. The price will be $2.00 a gallon. The tough part will be there won't be any.
In Soviet America, car fills pump!
There was a joke that came out of the first depression days.
It went like this:
What is the phrase that strikes the most fear in the hearts of men everywhere?
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
That means Oil is going to go up, inflation is going to accelerate, Obama isn't going to do anything about those things because he can't, but when the time comes he'll say, "I tried to do something about it but my opponents wouldn't let me.", and then he'll refer to the team he created to prove what he said is true.
+1000 datafox.
Didn't Jimmy Carter form a team to deal with the problems oil gave the American economy?
I think it was called, "Department of Energy".
yeah ... but the American people in their wisdom, chose to go a differet route ... it worked, until the whole world joined the frenzy ... now the party is over
The party isn't over. It is just time for the weak to leave.
could you elaborate on 'the weak'?
Weak economies and nations weak, militarily, will fall first.
They just won't have as far to fall.
If it is the socialist NWO who come out on top after the taking of the weak nation's resources, then Orwell's quote will have been prophetic.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
George Orwell
The weak are those who cannot live without food.
And that would be pretty much any nation that is surviving solely do to modern, oil intensive agriculture. Those who can't get the oil, one way or another.
I think this is an excellent lense by which to view your comment.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent...
Regards,
Cooter
Not to be outdone by Gerald Ford's Whip Inflation Now
http://www.ballotboxcollectibles.com/servlet/the-1193/GERALD-FORD-%22-WI...
Or President Barack O'Sheen's
#Winning (the future)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/winning-soundboard-the-best/id424511427?mt=8
Bottom line is that this administration HATES free markets, and is a LIAR. They know all too well what the cause of the price of oil is, after all, they help it along. But they must blame specs and "Big oil", just like they did during the election, all the while taking their campaign contributions. The name of the game is to deflect blame. 90% of the population will go along with it too is the sad thing.
Oh... the joy of globalization.
Everybody knows that speculation is bad ... I mean.. Finance was born to 'finance' ideas, not to play th Monopoly game on a global scale ...
the only reason speculation is not banned is because, capital is mobile, and all markets must agree to ban, or it would not work,...
anyway, the emerging economies markets will never agree ... if speculation was good when the US was screwing the world, the it must also be goo when the world is screwing the US ...
in the meantime, 90% of the Country, you know, the non-mobile ones, is paying for the profits of the speculators ...
by the way, do algos take ideas into account when trading?
Tomorrow the President will announce that the reason for America's bankrupt condition is due to the hoarding of silver. All silver will be confiscated per executive order. Resisters will be shot.
This national security alert was brought to you by doom incorporated. A division of Homeland Security.
OT, but you reminded me of something...
Last week, I was in Laredo, TX. While sitting at a traffic light, I noticed something interesting on the semi next to me. I have seen FEMA trucks and trailers many times...but this one indicated that it was based in Nuevo Laredo...in other words, on the Mexican side of the border. Now, why would FEMA - a federal agency tasked with emergency management in the USA - have an office in a foreign country?
From "Heart of Darkness", Joseph Conrad:
I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long eight-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent -- and nothing happened.
Nice connection, yes, but this feels a bit more like I am The Condemned Man in Kafka's "In The Penal Colony" and Erin Burnett is running the torture machine.
https://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/inthepenalcolony.htm
What is this, Joseph Conrad circa 1910?
There are a couple of misconceptions about the physical oil market versus the financial oil market. In the physical market, the holder of an expiring oil contract settles by taking physical delivery of the contract quantity of oil and pays the settlement price. This market is mostly used those that need physical barrels, like refiners who want to lock in acquisition costs for refinery supply.
In the financial market, the holder of a expiring oil contract (representing paper barrels not physical barrels) never takes delivery -- all settlements are with cash payment. This is a bet on the direction of oil prices, and just like an unlimited number of bets can be placed on a sporting event or an unlimited number of options can be written on a company stock or an index (like the S&P 500), an unlimited number of these financial contracts can be written; settlement is in cash not in the underlying commodity or asset. It doesn't matter that there might be 10X or 100X the number of paper barrels than there underlying production; no one can be caught in a squeeze searching for barrels to deliver, thus driving physical barrel prices up for the longs; the settlement is guaranteed because the contract writer must put up sufficient liquid assets to cover potential losses on a short position (or will get a margin call to do so).
The important point, however, is this: the ultimate value of that financial contract is totally dependent on the value of the underlying asset and not the other way around. The financial contract is a derivative; it has no independent value as its price is based on what is going on in the market for the underlying commodity. As oil prices move upward or downward for whatever reason (current supply/demand, supply disruption, threat of future supply disruption, MENA turmoil, peak oil, etc.), this will move the value of the paper barrels.
How is the oil market physical vs. paper any different than the metals market? Where much has been written about the physical supply vs. paper supply and how GLD and SLV are being manipulated.
In the case of metals, the paper market is used to try and suppress true price discovery. Movements by underlying physical are overdone on the upside and downside by paper trading.
obama will try to pop any speculative balloon by govt involvement either directly through proxy trading partners and by policy for a short term artificial "win".
I wonder if there is a study of the metals/oil markets comparing and contrasting them today with more paper speculative trading vs. past markets where more of the trading was hedging for physical exchange.?
Tail wags the dog?
Thanks zodiac for a good informative post.
Up to 60% of the price of oil could be speculation.
In fact how 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.”
In a world which has not gone insane, a rise in oil prices would trigger an effort by the owners of capital to evaluate the feasibility of investing in the production of more oil. They would decide to do so if the cost of applying capital to the project would be estimated as something less than the benefits to be achieved.
Another way to think of this is that a loan proposal would be offered to a bank. The bank would evaluate it, and then offer to fund the loan at a certain interest rate. The principal amount of the loan plus interest expense is the cost of the project.
If the project is managed by a good businessman, and if it results in the delivery of a lot of new oil to market, and if the money realized by the sale of this new oil exceeds the principal amount and interest cost of the loan, then the profit motive has been utilized to drive down the price of oil, which is good for society. If this process produces a lot of new oil, and the price is driven down considerably, the wealth of the world is increased substantially, and the loan, plus interest, is repaid in full. No new credit is left outstanding, and the human race lives more comfortably.
Well, given the current insanity, what we get instead is that the price of oil is what it is. Bernanke gives a shitload of dollars to a bunch of rich people. These are smart people who know that the very act of giving away newly created dollars will debase the currency, so they go looking for inflation hedges. They go out and buy a diversied basket of commodity futures, including oil futures. Demand for oil futures causes their price to rise. Those price rises apply both to refineries who actually want to take delivery as well as speculators who just want to roll their contracts as an inflation hedge, with a smidgen of capital gains sprinkled in for extra flavor. The price of oil settles in at some level much higher than it should be.
And because none of the money created by the Bernanke is being used to fund additional exploration and extraction activities, the "investment" in oil futures does nothing to increase supply, and prices remain unnaturally high.
In a rational system, smart people only fund projects which yield a return greater than their cost. It is in this way that the wealth of the world is increased.
In the Bernanke system, you skip the first part, the part about applying capital only where it produces a return greater than its cost. You just give the money away without requiring any sort of loan proposal, or any sort of return, and nothing is produced for the benefit of society. Another way to look at the transaction is that normally, before you pay somebody a contract price, they have to produce to your satisfaction. In BernankeWorld, you can skip the production part, and just hand out the money without regards to what the recipient might do with it.
The end result is an ever-growing amount of dollars in circulation, chasing after a static amount of goods. What is doubly stupid about QE is that it does not stimulate real world production of any sort. If it was intended at all to be a replacement for or an inducement to increased lending, it has failed miserably in that regards.
As already pointed out by several people, the obvious solution is to restrict participation in the oil futures market to bidders who actually need crude oil to operate their businesses. That would be good advice across all commodities. Wasn't it GS who successfully lobbied Clinton to end all such restrictions?
But it is downright silly for the government to blame people for buying oil futures as a hedge against inflation when the government legalized that practice, and when the government is the idiot causing the inflation in the first place.
Beware any hedge funds who haven't contributed handsomely to Obama's election campaign, and who are heavily leveraged long in oil futures.
In a world which has not gone insane, a rise in oil prices would trigger an effort by the owners of capital to evaluate the feasibility of investing in the production of more oil. They would decide to do so if the cost of applying capital to the project would be estimated as something less than the benefits to be achieved.
Another way to think of this is that a loan proposal would be offered to a bank. The bank would evaluate it, and then offer to fund the loan at a certain interest rate. The principal amount of the loan plus interest expense is the cost of the project.
If the project is managed by a good businessman, and if it results in the delivery of a lot of new oil to market, and if the money realized by the sale of this new oil exceeds the principal amount and interest cost of the loan, then the profit motive has been utilized to drive down the price of oil, which is good for society. If this process produces a lot of new oil, and the price is driven down considerably, the wealth of the world is increased substantially, and the loan, plus interest, is repaid in full. No new credit is left outstanding, and the human race lives more comfortably.
Well, given the current insanity, what we get instead is that the price of oil is what it is. Bernanke gives a shitload of dollars to a bunch of rich people. These are smart people who know that the very act of giving away newly created dollars will debase the currency, so they go looking for inflation hedges. They go out and buy a diversied basket of commodity futures, including oil futures. Demand for oil futures causes their price to rise. Those price rises apply both to refineries who actually want to take delivery as well as speculators who just want to roll their contracts as an inflation hedge, with a smidgen of capital gains sprinkled in for extra flavor. The price of oil settles in at some level much higher than it should be.
And because none of the money created by the Bernanke is being used to fund additional exploration and extraction activities, the "investment" in oil futures does nothing to increase supply, and prices remain unnaturally high.
Oh, allright. If existing producers are operating at less than capacity, maybe they can be induced to nudge supply upwards a little bit with needing to make more capital expenditures, so maybe supply can get a little kick upwards. But even that is a distorsion. Do we want to encourage underutilization of capacity or the carrying of high inventories merely to create an unexpected profit opportunity if speculation distorts pricing?
In a rational system, smart people only fund projects which yield a return greater than their cost. It is in this way that the wealth of the world is increased.
In the Bernanke system, you skip the first part, the part about applying capital only where it produces a return greater than its cost. You just give the money away without requiring any sort of loan proposal, or any sort of return, and nothing is produced for the benefit of society. Another way to look at the transaction is that normally, before you pay somebody a contract price, they have to produce to your satisfaction. In BernankeWorld, you can skip the production part, and just hand out the money without regards to what the recipient might do with it.
The end result is an ever-growing amount of dollars in circulation, chasing after a static amount of goods. What is doubly stupid about QE is that it does not stimulate real world production of any sort. If it was intended at all to be a replacement for or an inducement to increased lending, it has failed miserably in that regards.
As already pointed out by several people, the obvious solution is to restrict participation in the oil futures market to bidders who actually need crude oil to operate their businesses. That would be good advice across all commodities. Wasn't it GS who successfully lobbied Clinton to end all such restrictions?
But it is downright silly for the government to blame people for buying oil futures as a hedge against inflation when the government legalized that practice, and when the government is the idiot causing the inflation in the first place.
Beware any hedge funds who haven't contributed handsomely to Obama's election campaign, and who are heavily leveraged long in oil futures.
Only in america can banksters steel, defraud, con, and rape everyone without penalty.... but lord have mercy on your soul if you legally speculate in oil...
Leglly... correct!
But only the rules allow it ... anyway, the same way the rules wer created, they can and should be changed
A few years ago the Canadian government conducted an investigation about manipulation of gas prices. They found no wrongdoing. Same story here--the disillusionment is inevitable.
Not quite dude!
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/SenatePrint10965MarketSpecReportFI...
of course, why would anybody pay attention to this ...
c'mon, go watch american idol ... everything is fine
Yes I know that everything the great US SENATE puts out is so full of truth...ahem...I mean hypocracy is more like it!
whatever!
just read it and let us know what is wrong with it ...
The conclusion is inconclusive. Ergo, no wrongdoing.
"Speculation Has Increased Prices. Speculation has contributed
to rising U.S. energy prices, but gaps in available market data
currently impede analysis of the specific amount of speculation, the
commodity trades involved, the markets affected, and the extent of
price impacts."
Gotta be a seller for every buyer.
I think eroding oil supply is obvious and speculation by government funded entities is the only thing holding the price down.
I guess I missed the memo^H^H^H^H 5-year plan about how being long oil would land you in Goulag.
In communist america, OIL shorts YOU. (replace oil with fed, bernake, obama, dollar, whatever)
There is no communism around ... just plenty of monopoly and game-rigging by the new 'aristocracy', the oligarchy the controls the nation ... you know the type of thing that caused the pilgrims to make a move ... to escape the control of the priviledged minority ...
You know ... this is the bullsh!t that made me join ZH, after having been a reader for a while , just for the pleasure of exposing the pure, unadulterated BS
Communism is just extra-national aristocracy and oligarchy by proxy.
Colonialism by stealth with an agitprop smoke screen from the usual suspects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4LADEFmYk
Black Gold... Texas Tea...
Yeah, let's turn up the heat on that oil speculating fraudster, Jed Clampett...
Bullshit Barry Is on Top of It
"Empty Suit" Holder couldn't find his ass... let alone a financial crime...
Obamination is in full campaign mode. He has to know that he needs a reduction in gas prices to get re-elected. I have a feeling he would want a price spike this summer and then by the magic of his policies he would claim a victory of reduction of prices from $5-6 or more "back down" to $3-$4 a gallon.
you know he'll claim victory no matter what.
If/when he gets re-elected he'll be a lame duck Pres and institute phase 2 of Sec Energy's dream of European like gas prices of $9/gallon. Game over.
It's so obvious. Elephant in the room.
Ah yes, campaign mode. I was wondering why he waited so long before going after the evil speculators (I was expecting it at $100).
Of course, this trick didn't work for Hoover, but apparently FDR got some mileage out of it.
He needs more that that ... considering the state of the economy
There are two: i) Peak oil ii) Devaluing dollar
Psst I know a guy named Ben.....
Now Ben can write a Put on oil like the bond market
Obama the speculator speculum.
Does this mean owning UCO makes one a unique form of domestic terrorist?
Gd dp
Dp
Will this 'War on Oil traders' go like the other US Govt wars;
War on Drugs : Fail
Prohabition of Alcahol : Fail
War on CO2/Climate : Fail
War on Immigration : Fail
War on Tobacco : Fail
War on Poverty : Fail
War on Terrorism : Fail
Promise (Bush and Obumma) to find Bin Hiding : Fail
War on Unemployment : Fail
The only thing the US Govt seems good at is its war on peoples liberty and peoples pockets/wallets and constant attacks on free markets
ZG,
Hint: With most NWO statist propaganda, replace the word 'on' with 'for' and immediately pivot to a 180 ° 20/20 perspective.
The Shadow Government's success rate is in fact 1/0
So QE2 is ending and there is suddenly a war on oil speculators, the Fed is having press conferences, the Fed is selling puts to keep interest rates down... but the economy is great! Sounds like it's finally sinking in with Bernanke QE3 will not be permitted anytime soon.
This isn't about saving the country, it's about saving Bernanke's head. Bernanke knows if the stock market falls, with interest rates going up, unemployment still high, and after blowing 600 billion dollars... he's finished.
So QE2 is ending and there is suddenly a war on oil speculators, the Fed is having press conferences, the Fed is selling puts to keep interest rates down... but the economy is great! Sounds like it's finally sinking in with Bernanke QE3 will not be permitted anytime soon.
This isn't about saving the country, it's about saving Bernanke's head. Bernanke knows if the stock market falls, with interest rates going up, unemployment still high, and after blowing 600 billion dollars... he's finished.
I guess it's an attack on all free market enterprise, since going out and assuming the risk of starting a new business is also a form of speculation.
Not to mention that it's very selfish, going against the ideology of the "Greater Good."
Has obama not covered his shorts yet?
Squeeze him, boys.
My momma always told me to find the weak hand and take advantage.
Obama is totally clueless.
You have to love how Washington blames others for their screw ups with a straight face when Bernanke's QE2 and Obama's invasion of Libya are 95% of the price rise!
Such a joke. You want to fix the budget, apply Sarbanes Oxley to the Federal government's financial statements and let Geithner and Obama sign off them under penalty of jail time.
Good luck getting that message out.
Thank you President Obama - not that we know who the enemy of democracy and the American way of life is we can go get those motherfuckers. Oil speculators - who knew? Just goes to show you what an enlightened leader can do when he really puts his mind to it.
The gas lines are coming. My old man told me that people we going ape circa '79, he saw it first hand, within a week of the first big Iranian shock, people were waving revolvers at each other at the neighborhood DinoCo. Price controls then, price controls now??
People in other countries have been paying high prices for a long time, and they aren't waving revolvers at each other, so why does everyone in North America freak out?
Because our country isn't 45 miles wide, and if your car doesn't go, you can't get to work, you lose your job, and your family starves. It must be nice to live in a country where the American people directly/indirectly pay for your national security needs, freeing up money for public transport and welfare use. "Our" fault, I know, but nobody really asked "us".
Oh yeah, and it isn't about PRICE, it's about PRICE-CONTROL-INDUCED SHORTAGES, which is what happened in 1979. There were literally dry pumps everywhere, with no gas, er, "petrol" or "benezelated spirits" available at Carter's fake low prices.
(Critical Edit) Thank you President Obama - now that we know who the enemy of democracy and the American way of life is we can go get those motherfuckers. Oil speculators - who knew? Just goes to show you what an enlightened leader can do when he really puts his mind to it.
Will he also declare on Soros and his war on the Dollar, too?
This is nothing but a PR/reelection campaign. It will NOT bring down energy prices! It is totally misguided! It will ultimately lead to HIGHER prices, not lower ones! The Deceiver in Chief strikes again!
Barama is mad because his efforts to destroy the USA is not complete, and this oil 'distraction' is hampering his efforts.
They should really be arresting the federal reserve members, banking ceo's, and bring an end to the IMF/Worldbank.
Anything else is just masturbation.
Speculation is the branches, but the Fed and its monetary mayhem is the root of the problem! They are just hacking at branches in this action! This may sound good for the cameras, but it won't bring down prices. It's meant for the cameras and campaigns, NOT for cheap energy!
And now, during the bull run from $250 to $1500, ABX's after hours quote is....red. Please Obama, you want to talk specs, address the public on the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, as in your Working Group on Financial Markets.
Hmmmm....lemme see here...price controls on prices that are rising, for what ever reason = ummm...surpluses??? No, wait, SHORTAGES...that's the ticket...
Now, why do I remember not wanting to go for a car ride in the late 70's with the peeps when I knew a stop at a gas station was involved...
If we make some hedonic adjustments to the laws of thermodynamics we can cut oil demand in half!
Has anyone told Obama that his country has been taken over by BANKERS yet. The FEDERAL reserve ,which is NOT FEDERAL ,and has NO RESERVES,is the fucking ENEMY. Is the FUCKING GUY RETARDED , or does he just like sucking Rothschild cock.
And some Rockefeller up the ass.
Oil is high but there is a bigger fucking Banker Elephant in the fucking room.
Wow.....do they think we are fucking dumb,and most seem to be.
WAKE THE FUCK UP....!!!!
it's the BANKSTER KILLING YOUR COUNTRY .
Fucktard.
This is all kind of funny and sad. You have the Bernank in a box; any way out is trouble. S&P downgrades the US on Monday while Geithner and Obummer are running around telling anyone who will listen that the debt ceiling will be raised to keep the wolves away and now you've got Obummer going after 'the speculators' who have been making a fortune off of his indecision and confusion. It's like the story of the kid who stuck his finger in the dike to stop the water...the only difference is the dike that Obummer is standing next too has more than ten holes and each of them are way bigger than his fingers. What's the old adage,"You don't need to make your decisions based on reality, you just need to live with the real world consequences." Welcome to reality Obama, you will be the President who goes down as the one who imploded our economy and destroyed the greatest country ever. I guess we all will learn (and suffer) from your ridiculous decision making.
"It's like the story of the kid who stuck his finger in the dike . . . "
. . . and she's not too happy about it.
Good one!
The same, however, cannot be said about the little boy.
PS,.... FUCK YOU NIGGER.
can't you be a little more imaginative?
same guys that haven't found a felony in the mortgage industry?
true... true.
Exactly, they will find someone to fine, oh say 30 million.
Hope, Hope and Change!!! Yes we can..........
I rely on this site for a lot of learning, since I'm not of financial DNA.
That said, I agree with at least the headline Obama premise regarding speculators and oil. I'm of the mindset that when people have waaaaay more money than they need, their sole mission in life is to protect its value and grow it by yield chasing. Understandable. But when Reginald Billionaire chases returns via things Joe Average needs to live-- food, oil, housing, utilities-- my suspicion is that the laws of supply and demand allow Reginalds billions to drive prices up even though actual physical demand for the items has not essentially changed.
I have considered investing in commodities to protect my own fragile and comparitively small nest egg. Whenever I consider food items, I have an ethical problem with it, although I recognize it would be a great safety net should TSHTF.
I'll read thoughtful comments after mine, in case anyone wants to educate me (saying that without sarcasm or cynicism).
PS. Please don't try to pigeonhole me just because I agree with the overall concept of keeping uber-wealthy speculators out of the cost of living commodities.
...just don't keep cash..buy items/tools to which make work and gain...every day.
foods good..but 42 mil+ army of hunger...which side of that do you wanna be on?
give a man a fish, or teach fishing...both work
Amazingly oil speculator investigations only take place when oil prices go up, but never when they fall. Apparently, speculators only play the long side and never short.
BHO is a moron.
Its only speculation when markets move in a way governments dont want.
Just as it is only "hoarding" when it involves commodities which the government wishes to steal (at the point of a gun) from the general population.
TOTUS (Telepromter of the USSR) is just making the same speech he's made since day one. "It's not my fault, vote for me, vote Democratic".
He knows, we know, the media knows, everyone except a few clueless sheeple know the TBTF banks are the speculators he's after and will never challenge, as they are his masters.
The problem is
1. No transparency.
2. Lax enforcement.
3. Money printing. Well thats how Bernanke rolls!
3. These markets were never geared towards accomodating such a huge influz of pure trading for profits. And the solution to that would be taking down the multi billion dollar trading desks of Wall Street away. We all know thats not going to happen.
1 and 2 can be fixed. But the rules would apply to all commodites.
3 and 4 will never be addressed.
What you get is an half a$$ed attempt at fixing a critical issue for many Americans.
"Create a team" read: create a new bureaucracy for 1000s of new govt. jobs - preferably run by a public union (bennies, pensions, etc.) - with plenty of upper administrative positions for friends and family members to use as leverage for the next election. Oh, and don't forget the new Czar that will have to be appointed to watch them and report back to the Prez'.
It'll do wonders for the oil trade AND create all sorts of wonderful tax-sucking jobs at the same time!
(sarc' off)
Despite attempts by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic aide Austan Goolsbee to shrug off Standard and Poors’ controversial downgrade of the U.S. economic outlook, the Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poor’s in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States, according to The Washington Post. The Post reported Tuesday that two people familiar with the matter said Treasury Department officials had been discussing with S&P whether the ratings agency should change its outlook on the United States to “negative” from “stable,” an indication that the country could lose its crucial AAA rating in coming years over its soaring debt levels. According to the paper, Treasury officials told S&P analysts that they were underestimating the ability of politicians in Washington to fashion a compromise to curb deficits, a Treasury official said. They argued a change in ratings was not needed at this time because the debt was manageable and the administration had a viable plan in the works, the official said. The private conversation played out publically on Monday when Assistant Treasury Secretary Mary Miller criticized the rating’s service, and her statement contained many of the same arguments made to S&P analysts. “We believe S&P’s negative outlook underestimates the ability of America’s leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation,” Miller said in her statement. “As the President said last week, addressing the current fiscal situation is well within our capacity as a country. He has initiated a bipartisan process that will allow us to make progress on a balanced approach to restoring fiscal responsibility. ” Goolsbee also attempted to downplay the S&P’s move in an interview with Bloomberg Television, calling it a “political judgment” that he believes is“not right.” Despite the administration’s pleas, The Post reports S&P analysts told Treasury officials on Friday that they were unmoved—and released a report that expressed skepticism that the political parties could come together on how to bring spending in line with revenue. As the paper notes, it is not uncommon for companies and governments to push back when they don’t agree with a decision made by a credit ratings agency. Sometimes, companies that issue debt — which also pay for the ratings — will shop around for the best rating. But the U.S. government is an unusual case—it doesn’t solicit ratings. S&P and the other major credit rating agencies offer their judgments notwithstanding.
Nixon blamed inflation on "the wage and price spiral". Jimmy Carter blamed inflation on the "Arab oil cartel". Bush and Obama say there is no inflation.
Whip Inflation Now, Bitchez.
Who still has their pin-on medallion?
We need to get rid of Marxists in White house who IMHO destroy this great country quite deliberately.
"We're gonna protect the American consumer".
B.O.
Another classic from the master liar.
Uniformly stupid human society devoid of individual responsibility or consequences. Moral Hazzard is by design.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-c.html#CHAPTERXIII
A law of nature, lex naturalis, is a precept, or general rule, found out by reason. That I feel is along way away.
Nations will paddle there own canoe"yard issues" then trade can "hopefully" balance may be the case guys. Consolidation under way to stabilize zones by Governments. Remember Nafta was to stabilize left leaning nation on the taxpayers dime, and yes the drafters admitted things did not work out as planned. Meanwhile the ilk buried us in policies. It took decades to build the perfect beast we seen undertaken in the mid eighties. Even the arcticles on ZH underpin internal consolidation on frantic and misguided policies.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china-inflation-and-wage-protests-spread-turn-violent
Printing fiat is certainly not helping and certainly disconnects on per capita spending. Structual plays must ensue on uneven labor pools but fair has never been the issue has it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRkvg_LuZvk&feature=related
So many different ways to break their economic plaything here, CDS, CDO , CDO squareds, buying mortgage shit shovelers, back shorting long clients, a bald MERS assumption of our notaries, lobbyist open staffing of reform writing "representatives".
Anyways, its quite easy to fix.
Just repeal, undo, and unglue, ourselves, from both "Modernization" Acts created by Sen. Phil Gramm-TX, in 1999 and 2000. That's when all this new mischief started!!!
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act, and the Financial Services Modernization Act (aka Gramm-Leech-Bliley Act) of 1999.
The 2 Gramm "Modernizations".
somehow I think this will not hurt the cokebrothers in some way
Res publica mortuus est, vivat imperium
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/more-lies-berkshire-revised-proxy-reveals-previously-undisclosed-contact-between-sokol-and-l?CFID=18100113&CFTOKEN=676d43bf6b704b0c-7A3BE1EC-9AF7-696F-9C2E5ABE167EB505
Oil is FOREVER!
Check this out guys.
Uniformed Military goon squads patrolling the streets.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2011/04/21/1547219/downtown-safety-posts-...
They are actually calling them "Courtesy patrols".
How cool is that!
War on poverty- Starring greedy evil fucking bankers who love to impovrish
War on drugs - Starring evil fucking drug dealing pieces of shit.
War on oil - Starring gas guzzling, why accept no when you can kill people armed forces.
I GOT THIS!! THIS IS HANDLED!! YOU ALL GO WATCH TV!!
You should keep the oil flowing. I would gladly wipe out a nation if it tried to starve the US of oil. I justify that by being willing to pay market prices for it. I will, however, not watch my nation suffer when I can just take it if you choose unwisely.
Whoa dude.
Take a hit o my shit and chill.
I dont mind riding my electric bike.
I will peddle on the flat stretches and
save time and money by skipping the gym.
I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the US.
I have watched the world do its best to shit on the US my entire life. I owe them nothing. Nothing at all.
man you are one bad ass patriot
+100
China doesn't have to debate, they just cut it off. Not one word of China cutting off export's on any new's media today, unless I missed it. ZH and a few trading sites are the only places I viewed this intel.
China's Sinopec cuts off oil exports, http://bit.ly/gdWqBX
Obama know's the price of oil is going out of sight, so his blerb today is totally political.
China doesn't have to debate, they just cut it off. Not one word of China cutting off export's on any new's media today, unless I missed it. ZH and a few trading sites are the only places I viewed this intel.
China's Sinopec cuts off oil exports, http://bit.ly/gdWqBX
Obama know's the price of oil is going out of sight, so his blerb today is totally political.
Well we are going to universalize that.
You're fired!!
Burn down the office.
You're laid off!!
Shoot boss burn down office.
Gas prices high. Buy 20 gallons set a highway on fire.
This is how it works. You got your violent groups and you got your non-violent groups.
Once a group turns violent the natural advantage of being in a violent group playing with non-violent people goes away.
Once you start burning shit down as an arsonist. Do you stop and reform? No.
Once you start blowing shit up do you stop and reform? No.
Once you start killing people as a way to solve problems do you seek other solution paths? No.
Once you start lying to get cooperation and as long as it works do you stop it?
This is why they keep pumping the UFO scam and the crazy UFO "responsibility" that they are here to stop all the governments eating thier citizens. Why they keep pumping the jesus will fix this. All man behind the curtain approaches.
Your nations going to suffer. Period. People will throw up dense fixed divided energy and wreck this fucking place.
And you say gladly wipe out a place you mean you will wipe out a place as long as the people break before you. When you are facing something that you just might have a bunch of fucking hassle with. You will feel reluctant as hell. Not because of fear and being overpowered but because of return. The jackassery of burning and using he easiest gasoline to get to the crappy goo to burn the crappy goo to get to the tar sand shit pit.
Sooner or later you begin to realize that you don't have a fucking machine to carry that 1200 lb gun into combat.
People yelling at liars in town hall meetings. - Lying don't work.
People shooting at tax collectors - force don't work.
People within the army realizing you have to win to keep the heat off your back.
Instincts stop working, intuition stops working because the cia handler fucking guides are cut off like the fucking peice of shit bullshit artists they are. They send you into shit with the worst fucking intel imaginable.
Spiritual IT turns into rotten fucked up government IT.
http://honolulugrubclub.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/6745b9a0-f37f-4f36-b...
Spice must flow!
Greece has apparently declared war on rumormongers as well by sending Interpol after them. Sorry Greece, more truthiness here than not. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/21/citigroup-faces-inquiry-o...
>>>>>
We have had very high trend crude oil prices over the past five years sandwiched around the deepest recession (not over) since the Great Depression. Doesn't this tell you something?
The industry is looking for oil where it is very expensive to recover. Doesn't this tell you something?
Monetary authorities are doing everything within their power to substitute credit for energy. Doesn't this tell you anything?
Americans feel entitled to inexpensive gasoline regardless of reality: more SUVs and giant pickup trucks on the highways, more sprawl and 'infrastructure'. The waste- idea has been exported far and wide. Chinese and Egyptians all want to live like Americans.
Ideas die hard and this 'cheap gas entitlement' idea is going to go hardest of all. We've wasted all the easily accessible stuff already, now the world's economic output cannot support the costs of 'the expensive stuff' and still show profits. The president joins with the rest of Americans to blame 'nobody in particular' because -- for heaven's sake -- we cannot bear to blame ourselves.
The speculators seek to give us what we want (they are probably holding the price down by shorting crude futures, jawboning and 'arbing' WTI against Brent) but they cannot pull oil out of the ground that does not exist.
The prices will go higher for a time. they might retest the 2008 high and the outcome will be the same -- the same outcome as in 1973 and 1979- 83 and 1991: a oil price driven crash as businesses dependent upon cheap crude fail.
Don't blame Bernanke or Obama, look in the mirror, look at your 'ride' and blame yourself.
America's " 'cheap gas entitlement' " - get in the way of America's voracious lust to consume the world's oil (especially if you live in Mideast or Central Asia) and Uncle Sam & his hired killers will be happy to drop a 1,000 lb. DU bomb right on your head!