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  • poopshovel

    Feb. 25, 2011 11:48 a.m. poopshovel SuperDork

    Like the rest of us, CEO's of oil companies like to make money and berkeley b*tches. A good CEO will take every opportunity to make MORE money, and therefore, berkeley MORE b*tches. It's all in my new book "How to make more money and berkeley b*tches while doing so."

    Seriously though, is it really that berkeleying difficult to understand? I run a business. I set my prices at what the market will bear. Last year, I killed off all of my competition in the area. Do you think my prices went up or down? If my prices get too high, demand goes down.

    Do you guys seriously think that oil companies owe you a REASON as to why their prices are what they are? Buy it or don't buy it.

    Better yet, stick it to the man. When gas prices have been 'down' for about a year, go buy yourself a $500 - $1000 Festiva, Ass-pyre, Metro, etc. Drive it until gas prices go up again. Sell it to some berkeleying idiot who's really bad at math and can't figure out that it'll never pay for itself in gas savings for $1500 - $2000, and you'll have $1,000 in your pocket and won't have to worry about it costing 10 measly dollars more to fill up your tank.

  • 92CelicaHalfTrac

    Feb. 25, 2011 11:50 a.m. 92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork

  • poopshovel

    Feb. 25, 2011 11:56 a.m. poopshovel SuperDork

    Precisely.

  • triumph7

    Feb. 25, 2011 12:05 p.m. triumph7 Reader

    joey48442 wrote:

    Kramer wrote:

    It's all Bush's fault. When Obama takes office, he'll fix it.

    Hilarious!

    It's not the prez's fault, either one of them.

    Joey

    Actually, who said that we can't drill in the Gulf?

  • Jerry From LA

    Feb. 25, 2011 12:05 p.m. Jerry From LA HalfDork

    In a nutshell:

    Demand > Supply

  • Feb. 25, 2011 12:37 p.m. steelynorm New Reader

    It is definitely driven by global news today. An unstable middle east creates concerns and opportunities for our monies. "buy the rumor sell the fact" is a common adage. Until their is more compelling news on the horizon our energy market will trend with the latest up to date global or petroleum based gossip. If you have any money in a 401k or other financial tool, your peeps hopefully have you on the right side of this recent up tick on the energy side.

    As for pump prices, better fill up your miata, and your significant others landtank because the prices have not really hit the streets yet.

  • oldtin

    Feb. 25, 2011 1:23 p.m. oldtin Dork

    here's the gubment line whatever excuse comes through the media is, well, media crap and either way, there isn't much I can do to control the price. I can just control use. For my commute, it's probably going to cost an extra $350 for the year in gas with the same vehicle. On the math side - 20,000 miles/year at 17 mpg is 1176 gallons. If I could do it at 35 mpg it's 571 gallons saving about 600 gal x 3.45 = $2070. I won't be cashing out the SUV anytime soon, but it's worth fixing up the ex250 for the commute when it's nice out.

  • Tom Heath

    Feb. 25, 2011 1:35 p.m. Tom Heath Web Manager

    Everybody wants a fat stack.

  • Feb. 25, 2011 1:40 p.m. steelynorm New Reader

    $2000 bucks in gas savings! Thanks with numbers like that, sounds like we can all justify another miata purchase to the wife

  • HiTempguy

    Feb. 25, 2011 1:44 p.m. HiTempguy Dork

    aircooled wrote:

    Lets put it this way:

    If everyone is buying Miata's (I know, a stretch), and suddenly Mazda says they will cut production by 25% (exaggeration), what do expect to happen to the price of Miata's almost immediately?

    (and yes, all questions can be answered with Miata)

    See, the problem is that people can still BUY oil and gas, even if production is cut. Its not like we magically are running out. A more accurate description would be if Mazda was creating a surplus of Miata's, and then cutting back to a more reasonable rate.

  • Feb. 25, 2011 2:24 p.m. fasted58 New Reader

    $4.00/ gal. gas was predicted well before the unrest in the middle east... maybe they knew something we didn't, or it's just our turn in the, uh... barrel.

  • novaderrik

    Feb. 25, 2011 3:09 p.m. novaderrik HalfDork

    the price of oil,and the price of gas along with it, is set by people investing in the commodities market. the very same people that always "predict" that the price of oil will go up are the people that just happen to currently have a lot of their money tied up in oil futures. other people see that the big boys are "predicting" that oil will go up, so they throw their money into it, too, to try to make some money off it.. this causes the price to go up.

    then at a certain point the big boys start unloading their oil futures at the same time, and they make a ton of money before the price crashes again.. this happens every few years lately, and they are currently using the unrest in the Middle East and northern Africa as a convenient excuse to make themselves some easy $$$. they claim that there will be a worldwide oil shortage due to all the civil unrest, never mind that every bit of that oil that they own- billions and billions of barrels of the stuff- is all out there circling around on the oceans in giant super tankers even as we speak, with the captains of those ships just waiting to be told which port to go to and unload them.

    it's all a scam.

  • Strizzo

    Feb. 25, 2011 3:14 p.m. Strizzo SuperDork

    In reply to novaderrik:

    because there hasn't been anyone reporting that Libya will be shutting off supply or anything...

    these are not just any countries, they are OPEC countries that are somewhat unstable at best on any other day, and have now being pushed to the brink of collapse with these uprisings

  • Feb. 25, 2011 3:21 p.m. spitfirebill SuperDork

    So would it not be brilliant to go buy oil futures?

  • Leach

    Feb. 25, 2011 4:20 p.m. Leach SuperDork

    I think it was the announcement that Two and a Half Men has stopped filming. That chubby kid kills me.

  • jamscal

    Feb. 25, 2011 6:20 p.m. jamscal Dork

    Futures trading does serve a purpose...it's not just gambling, although it does seem to attract a bunch of gamblers.

    I can't remember the exact illustration, but if you're farming 10,000 acres of wheat, you will be buying and selling futures to minimize the impact of a catastrophic drought or make some extra on a bumper crop.

    Prices of existing stuff does change on bad news. If they stop making any popular product, remaining supplies of that product will go up, no matter the 'original' price.

    What gets me is that these publicly traded corporations are making money hand over fist, but no one wants to buy a stake in them, only complain.

    If it's such easy money, buy yourself 100 shares and share the wealth. Wait, it's not that simple?

  • PHeller

    Feb. 25, 2011 7:04 p.m. PHeller Dork

    Think of the Saudi fields as the Federal Reserve.

    They've got so much oil just sitting around that they are nice enough to fill in whenever another supply is shut off.

    But, they do this only to keep people from freaking out enough that they stop driving (and start riding).

    So, they "fill" the demand, but its the speculators that let the prices rise. Again, not by enough that the consumer gets scared, but just enough the speculators get to cash in on the changes in "expected" supply.

    Instead of gas taxes, we have speculators who get rich.

  • Ignorant

    Feb. 26, 2011 6:10 a.m. Ignorant SuperDork

  • Appleseed

    Feb. 28, 2011 4:57 p.m. Appleseed SuperDork

    How else will the CEO's acquire plate loads of cocaine?

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