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I Want to Understand Why Gas Prices are So Damned High

this is a discussion within the Everything Else Community Forum; Upon further review, I see it's already been addressed in a previous thread, http://blackandgold.com/ee/41978-i-w...mned-high.html ....

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Old 03-10-2012, 08:08 AM   #11
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Upon further review, I see it's already been addressed in a previous thread, http://blackandgold.com/ee/41978-i-w...mned-high.html.
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Old 03-10-2012, 09:09 AM   #12
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In my opinion Wall Street (actually the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, etc) is broken. Once upon a time (a phrase used to begin many a fairy tale) Wall Street was created as a place for businesses to raise capital. If you had a new idea for a business or needed to expand your business you sold a piece of the company as stock to private investors. Investors bought and sold stock in companies based upon their long-term perfornace, market trends, etc.

For nearly 200 years this worked really well.

Today, the whole system looks more like Vegas-east where money is bet not invested. Day traders buy and sell, flipping stocks so fast that the actual performance of a company is often not the issue at all. You make short term bets on stock, commonidites, etc and if you're a big enough player your bet moves the market. In short the game is fixed.

So, when traders, hedge fund managers, etc take positions on oil they have no intent on ever taking delivery. They are only betting the price will go up or down. This creates a false "demand" driving the price up or down and the traders win. Unfortunatley, for every winner there is also a looser and in this case it is us, the consumers.

Will the problem get fixed, highly unlikely. Wall Street money actually fixes two games. First, the trading process itself, as described above. Second, a chunk of the "profits" from the trades flow back to Washington in the form of campaign contributions, in short, protection money.

If you have a problem with low blood pressure I suggest reading Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer.
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Old 03-10-2012, 12:26 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by skymike View Post
The administration openly admitted this week that they are not seeking
to lower gas prices. High gas prices, they hope, will encourage
Americans to use alternative fuels. They're not even attempting to
hide this agenda. This doesnt come from anyone's editorial, this is
hard news this week.
They pay well over 6 bucks a gallon in Europe. The 'lucky' folks in some places in Europe are paying just under 6 bucks a gallon.
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Old 03-10-2012, 06:35 PM   #15
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It's $3.59 here in Nawlins. I did a little math. I basically work 2 full days for free every month. Between driving 73 miles a day, 5 sometimes 6 days a week, and $2.00 toll for the same said days. What you gonna do, there are bills to pay.
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Old 03-11-2012, 06:39 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by saintfan View Post
They pay well over 6 bucks a gallon in Europe. The 'lucky' folks in some places in Europe are paying just under 6 bucks a gallon.
Across the river, Canadians are paying approx. $1.30CAN per litre, they also use an Imperial Gallon which is 4.5 litres/gallon as opposed to the US Gallon which is 3.78 litres/gallon. That translates into about $5.85 gallon. They've always had pretty high gas prices compared to us, but they get more gas per their gallon.

The reason gas prices have spiked so sharply is because of an implosion in the refinery capacity in the U.S., said Roger McKnight, a senior petroleum adviser with En-Pro International in Oshawa. Four refineries shut down in Philadelphia and a company that shipped a million barrels of oil a day to the U.S. from Europe filed for bankruptcy, McKnight said.
Read more: Windsor area gas prices predicted to hit $1.47
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Old 03-11-2012, 10:24 AM   #17
 
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Originally Posted by SloMotion View Post
Across the river, Canadians are paying approx. $1.30CAN per litre, they also use an Imperial Gallon which is 4.5 litres/gallon as opposed to the US Gallon which is 3.78 litres/gallon. That translates into about $5.85 gallon. They've always had pretty high gas prices compared to us, but they get more gas per their gallon.


Read more: Windsor area gas prices predicted to hit $1.47
yeah ... for sure... although there have been a couple of new refineries come online recently, there are too many older ones that need updating.. and we need some new ones too just to keep up with demand.

Last edited by SmashMouth; 03-11-2012 at 10:30 AM..
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Old 03-12-2012, 02:13 AM   #18
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We pay about $8 per gallon in Sweden right now. Our taxes on gas are really high. But I went trough college for free and don't pay much for healthcare so I'm pretty happy about it.
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Old 03-12-2012, 11:03 AM   #19
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Originally Posted by Crusader View Post
We pay about $8 per gallon in Sweden right now. Our taxes on gas are really high. But I went trough college for free and don't pay much for healthcare so I'm pretty happy about it.
Taxes will be that high here eventually.
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Old 03-12-2012, 12:29 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by saintfan View Post
Taxes will be that high here eventually.
As high as a female giraffes' female part!

It would sound better if I could type it the way you say it.
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