– Speculation probably does play a role in high gas prices. But the fact that it’s a finite resource that we’re using more and more of probably has more to do with it.
– Birtherism qua birtherism is really, really dumb, but as always Shakesville has an interesting take.
– I didn’t realize people vote straight ticket more often either, but I guess it makes sense as the line between Democrats and Republicans has sharpened.
– I’m amazed we didn’t do this already.
– The Seahawks’ schedule looks tough. Still, as we learned last year, you don’t have to have anything as fancy as a winning record to make the playoffs.
I’m glad to see we have daily open threads new. Somebody was listening. Thanks Carl!
In case you missed it, the big news story in the Republican Times this morning was that the National Labor Relations Board has charged Boeing with illegally retaliating against the union for striking (as it had a right to do) by moving part of the Dreamliner assembly to a non-union South Carolina plant. The NLRB is seeking a ruling that would require Boeing to move that production back to union plants.
I’m not sure exactly how that would play out if the NLRB wins. As I interpret the NLRB complaint, Boeing wouldn’t necessarily have to move the work back to Washington State. Possibly one way they could comply would be if the South Carolina workers voted in the union and were put under the same contract, at the same pay, as the plants here.
On the subject of gas prices, President Obama today announced a task force to investigate whether speculators are pushing up prices at the pump.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42.....sion_2012/
Gas prices are rising for a very simple reason: Crude prices are rising. The market’s pricing of crude is highly complex, but it’s noteworthy that Saudi Arabia earlier this month cut production, claiming there’s no shortage of oil reaching the market. In the past, the Saudis generally have played it straight with things like this, so if you take their word for it, something other than supply-and-demand is pushing up oil prices.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s price fixing or market manipulation going on. The oil market is so huge it’s unlikely any player — or even group of players — in the commodity markets has the ability to manipulate prices. Even OPEC finds that hard to do.
The more likely causes of escalating crude prices are:
(a) Economic recovery is generating high oil demand;
(b) Libyan unrest that has shut down much of that country’s oil production is squeezing supply in an industry where there is very little spare capacity; and
(c) Eroding faith in the dollar is causing more investors to use commodities like oil as an alternative store of value. It should be noted that prices of commodities across the board, not just oil, are going up. Part of this is due to investors fleeing from cash and proteting their wealth by putting it into things with tangible value. And as this activity pushes up commodity prices, the higher commodity prices in turn attract speculators who hope to profit from the rising commodity prices.
When thinking about oil prices, an important consideration to remember is that world demand can no longer be met by old “cheap” oil — the oil that’s pumped from the world’s supergiant oilfields at a cost of a few dollars a barrel. Today, part of the mix in global supply is “expensive oil” — oil that costs a lot of money to extract. For example, oil from Saudi fields costs about $2.50 a barrel to get out of the ground, but oil from Canadian tar sands or the giant new fields offshore of Brazil costs more like $60 a barrel to produce.
Thus, when oil prices fall below a certain level — say $60 a barrel — the supply of “expensive” oil shrinks or shuts down. At the same time, falling prices boost demand. The result is that, with demand going up and supply going down, the market hits supply constraints on the downward slope of the oil-price cycle that effectively halt the price slide. Conversely, when prices are high and rising — as they have been since last year — producers ramp up production of “expensive” oil and supply expands, putting the brakes on further price rises unless some other factor restricts supply.
Over the last several months, that “other factor” has been the unrest in oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Libya. Libya isn’t a giant producer like Saudi Arabia or Russian, but Libyan oil’s share of global output is large enough to erase the very thin difference between demand and production capacity if anything happens to its output.
Another “other factor” has been turmoil in Russia’s oil industry as that country’s oil barons faced corruption charges and gone to jail. There has been some disruption of Russian oil getting to market, and Russia is a very big fish in the oil market, basically second only to Saudi Arabia. (I don’t have figures in front of me, so that’s off the top of my head. As I recall Saudi produces around 12m bpd and Russia a little over 10m bpd.)
I don’t believe there’s a nefarious plot unfolding to jack up gas prices and rip off motorists. This looks to me like the same oil market dynamics we’ve seen for several years now.
But if there is a conspiracy by speculators to rob the public at the pump, all I can say is, a hell of a large percentage of my personal stock portfolio is oil stocks and I’ll be among those profiting from consumers’ distress. In other words:
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Hey, if you don’t like putting money in Roger Rabbit’s pocket, then park your car and ride the bus!
I’m doing my bit to save the world by owning a shitload oil stocks. I’m forcing Republicans to get out of their cars by making them give money to me if they don’t! When they hate giving their money to Roger Rabbit enough, they’ll drive less and we’ll end up with cleaner air and fewer wealthy terrorists. What helps Roger Rabbit also helps the environment!
BREAKING NEWS — GOP Senator Resigns Over Ethics Probe!
The Republicans just lost a U.S. senator.
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), facing an ethics probe over an extramarital affair, has resigned from the U.S. Senate, effective May 3.
However, Nevada has a Republican governor, so Ensign’s replacement is likely to be a GOPer. But the departure of a veteran senator with seniority will force the GOP to try to hang onto the seat, which comes up for election next year, with a newcomer without the ability to tout the advantages of seniority to voters.
Birthers are racists.
@5. They must have some really really good dirt on him to make him resign.
They must have it on tape that he said he thinks Obama was born legitimately born here or something equally forbidden.
I just hope the Seahawks play any games this season…
so let me see if I get this straight:
when we have crazy oil prices when Bush was prez, its because TEH BUSHIE IS TEH EVUL! and bushie is making his oil cronies TEH RICH!
but when we have crazy oil prices during obama’s presidency, its “But the fact that it’s a finite resource that we’re using more and more of probably has more to do with it”
nice to see such consistent logic….
Oil is going up thanks mostly to a decline in the value of the dollar on the international market and that is most likely do to the Feds policy of adding $600 billion to the money supply.
Hey, you GOPers out there, helluva presidential field you’ve got going right now. You’ve got a bunch of minor league, single A candidates going up against Obama. Good luck with that, my rightwing friends. Two months ago, a rightwing stockbroker friend of mine said Obama was too weak to even run for reelection. That shows how deluded you folks are.
Ensign resigning is no surprise to me. I think he just did it to get out while he could with what little dignity he had left intact. Even in 2008, before any of the things he’d done had gone public, he was being seen in the circles I traveled in back in Nevada as being very vulnerable, even though two years before that he’d cruised to re-election rather easily.
Last I heard from down there, the grapevine was buzzing that Sharron Angle would run for Ensign’s seat. Which would all but hand the seat over to whoever the D’s put up to run.
Rodent, you old fart, your posts are as boring as ever.
Hey, did you see Gov. Perry in Texas has asked Texans to pray for rain.
Why not sacrifice a goat, too?
@11: As Ed’s guest said last night regarding Palin, Romney, and Trump:
“I quit, I’m Mitt, and I’m full of …”.
@9 You don’t have a fucking thing straight. You’re so unstraight it wouldn’t surprise me if your dick is a pretzel. Go ahead, shoot from the lip and make a public fool of yourself, I don’t care.
If you had gone back and read my posts of several years ago when Bush president, you would have discovered that I was saying the same things about oil then as I’m saying now. All the old-timers on this blog are well aware of that, so you’re just making yourself look like the idiot you are.
But don’t succumb to a fit of intellectual honesty; just keep pulling your posts out of your ass like you’ve been doing all along, so you can claim to be consistent.
@16
my post #9 wasnt directed at you ya old fart.
It was directed towards Carly -which is why I quoted him and not you.
pull your head out old man and try to keep up.
people must have made mincemeat out of you in the courtroom.
@10 I agree QE2 is a contributing factor, but why are you overlooking the effect on the global market of losing Libya’s oil production? Or the spike in demand for diesel fuel to run generators in the devastated area of Japan? Or Saudi Arabia’s production cut? There are a number of contributing factors. But the core of your argument is sound. After all, you’re merely reiterating what I said yesterday — that investors are moving wealth from dollars into tangible assets including commodities — and what I’ve been saying for a long time, that QE2 is inflationary and bad policy. The most I can say for your comment is that you’re right, but incomplete, and that Roger Rabbit got there first.
@11 “You’ve got a bunch of minor league, single A candidates going up against Obama.”
I wouldn’t lend it that much dignity. The GOP lineup is a Freak Show.
@13 Informative is often boring, but always useful. Your forte — being totally devoid of substantive content — is merely insipid.
@14 Getting a goat should be no problem, Mr. Cynical probably would be happy to oblige, and the goat would be more than willing to be sacrificed after Mr. Cynical has had his way with it.
@17 Get with the program, son. As a troll, your role here is to get kicked around by any foot that’s convenient. On this blog, all trolls are fair game all the time for all of us.
I’m pretty sure this vacuum headed little dipshit is the idiot formerly know as the platypussy.
I’m pretty sure this vacuum headed little dipshit is the idiot formerly know as the platypussy.
In today’s headlines, Syria’s regime underscored its illegitimacy yesterday when security forces opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing at least 44 people including an 11-year-old boy (according to Al-Jazeera).
This tactic born of frightened dictators’ desperation, as we’ve seen in country after contry, only hastens the demise of repressive autocracies.
Message to Syrian dictator: You’re next.
@24 You’re probably right. Our trolls have to keep changing their identities, not because anyone wants to steal their identity, but so their mothers don’t catch them blogging with a flashlight under the bed covers past their bedtime.
RR @ 2: I read the Boeing press release, and the Seattle Times article could have been written just by looking at the Boeing press release. In the press release, Boeing accused the Union of using unfair tactics in waiting until now, when the first assembly building is almost completed, to bring the complaint.
But that statement ignores the reality that the union has been trying to get the NLRB to file the complaint on their behalf for over a year – and Boeing management knows that. What tipped the scales was the S. Carolina governor appointing a state labor secratary who bragged – in public and into a microphone – that he and the governor percieved their job to be to keep unions out of South Carolina.
Now, everyone knew that the S. Carolina assembly plant was being opened by Boeing to put pressure on the unions here. But as long as everyone kept following the party line, and referring to it as a “cost issue” and a “competative labor force”, then they probably could get away with it. Only when someone opens their mouth and confirms the real (and illegal) motive do you have a smoking gun which allows you to proceed into the discovery process.
Just like an employer can usually get away with discriminating as long as they have what appears to be a racially neutral hiring process, even if for some reason no blacks or hispanics ever get past the initial interview. But if the H.R. director blabs to the wrong person that it’s a calculated process to exclude minorities, then the jig’s up.
As for remedies, I’m not optimistic. The courts can’t force the S. Carolina workers to be represented by the Union. But they might require Boeing to pay them the same pay and benefits as if they belonged to the union. This would be good for the workers, but not the union. Local workers might not be too happy that their S. Carolina workers are getting the same pay, benefits, and working conditions as their brethern in the Puget Sound region, without having to bear the cost of union representation (union dues). At that point, why would the S. Carolina workers EVER vote for union representation?
The most likely result, if it is found in favor of the union, is Boeing would be fined and warned not to do it again – effectively put on probation. Boeing would consider that to be simply the cost of doing business.
Oh, and now that the MLB commissioner Selig has taken management of the L.A. Dodgers away from the McCourts, there is this nice little summary of the McCourt’s business style:
So $20 Million Dollars in essentially tax-free income over two years – that’s the type of “job creation” which we are supposed to believe the rich will give us if we cut taxes. Of course, all the McCourts did, aside from providing a circus of a divorce trial, was nearly destroy one of the most legendary baseball franchises in American history.
Link for the above article:
Selig, McCourts, & the Dodgers
The main focus on the article is how Selig, for reasons which are known only to him, rejected an all-cash bid for the same amount for the Dodgers from a wealthy businessman in favor of Frank McCourt’s bid which arguably risked none of his own money. My guess is that it was the MLB old-boy’s network at work, a commissioner with unbridled discretion can pretty much let reward his friends and punish his enemies at will.
President Obama killed 26 Pakistanis, including women and children.
Google it.
How’s that “hope and change”?
Nobel peace prize indeed….
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....TopStories
@30: Compared to thousands of American servicemen and women, and tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilans under Bush?
It sucks, but is a marked improvement.
@23
you would be mistaken.
and
So Magoo (or is it NPR?) how much do you get paid for being a goat fucking HA troll? And who is your pay master? My guess you are one of the Koch suckers.
@34
Koch brother! bawk bawk! kock brothers! bawk bawk!
Blackwater Case Reinstated
On Sept. 16, 2007, mercenaries employed by Blackwater Security Services (now known as Xe) killed 17 Iraqi civilians, including women and children. In 2009, a federal judge threw out the criminal case against the Blackwater mercenaries, saying federal prosecutors mishandled evidence. Today, a federal appeals court ruled that the judge misinterpreted the law and reinstated the case.
@28 “The McCourts … jointly pocketed income totaling $108 million from 2004 through 2009 …. On that sum, they paid zero federal and state income tax. … The court papers indicate that the McCourts deliberately structured their business … to allow them to live tax-free.”
Oh my, the poor poor overtaxed abused rich!!! They need another tax cut, according to our troll friends.
Well, the silver lining to tax-dodging by the rich is that it’s going to be tough for Republicans to give more tax breaks to rich people who aren’t paying any taxes to begin wtih.
I’d like to see how they’re going to solve that dilemma.
@33…
…but not about you being a vacuum headed little dipshit.
@38
School get out early today?
Sunny skies!
top down!
car polished!
625 horses of greenouse gas pumping supercharged V8 at my command!
Thank you Carol Shelby.
Summer is just around the corner! FUN TIMES!
….and your stuck at home riding metro….I would be unhappy and pissed at the world if I was you too…HA is all you got.
oh…almost forgot.
BITE ME!
Why isn’t the paid troll NPR aka Ekim aka Magoo Rabbit a banned troll based on disruption? This would not be allowed on right wing blogs.
Signed,
Mrs. Rabbit
@41
smells like the rabbit is tired of getting his butt handed to him.
See Roger, thats what happens when you are a liar – someone like me is going go call you on your BS.
I have no idea who Ekim is…watch out for those black helicopters.
The reason the oil companies are soaking us for four bucks a gallon (and rising) is simply that they can.
@32 Sooo, eventhough our “peace prize prez”
expands the war in Afghanistan, stays in Iraq, continues to torture, won’t close gitmo, takes action in Libya but ignores Syria, Yemen et al,
and appears to be prosecuting a war on Pakistan…..you’re ok with it?
“Hope and Change” campaign promised something very different…..
But hey, he’s a D so not to worry.
Don’t get me wrong….F-yeah, bomb Pakistan. If Al-Aqaeda are hiding behind human shields, that’s on them.
It’s the BS the HA faithful try to play, shilling for this guy when he is doing exactly the opposite of what you want….
Oh by the way…Why hasn’t Obama captured Bin Laden yet?
That was the mem of the professional left about GWB. Well Mr. Hope and Change has sent in more troops, wasted more money and still hasn’t got him….Near as I can tell, we are no better off today than we were in 2006.
@43 and Rabbit..
It’s a nice try, and a great distraction to blame speculators for rising fuel prices.
I think our fearless leader even recommended a commision to look into it…Ooooh so lovingly lapped up by the media as leadership….
Federal monetary policy ie; QE1 and QE2 are the main reason oil and gas cost the US so much more these days….IMO
We’ve been printing money out of thin air under Obama like never before in history….
We’ve diluted the currency to the point where, when hyper inflation really kicks in…we’ll be totally f’d. There is major inflation already. Commodities are off the charts.
Anyone who has money saved is looking at the devalutation and theft of their savings by Obama….
It’s a nice game to blame the big bad oil companies…and speculators…..
It’s Obama and Geitner….which is really just Obama……
I agree with Right Stuff. Many times I have to go overseas to work on specific issues and MAKE THE SAVE on installations. Hey someone needs to get those free bennies. When I go over there I get less and less for my $$$. So ylb don’t read these links. You’ll get educated and everyone knows you’re very stupid.
Now some will argue it’s a G8 thing to make American exports cheaper because America still drives the world economy. Butt if these liberal fools have been paying attention, gas has skyrocketed after Obummer decided no more deep water drilling of oil. So blame it on speculators because you can’t blame this on GWBush of Republicans. Imagine that… you can’t look in the mirror and say it was my SUCKY policies that caused this.
Butt there is more. Of course this liberal led blog couldn’t post the fact last Sunday the World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that he’s really “concerned” about food prices. He also mentioned we’re just “one shock away from a full-grown crisis.” Now who is preznit again? Hmmmm…?
Or due to AlGorebasm
Waytogo Libtardo Al.
Or now we have CNBC who ridiculed a certain right wing commentator for saying this a year ago is now using this as their opening headline…
Now what is Obummer doing about it? Well he sent Timmy The Tax Cheater Geithner out to tell everyone S&P isn’t right.
Now why did S&P say this? Because Obummer wants a blank check on the debt ceiling.
It won’t affect ylb as he sits at home all day looking at whackjob kook-aid sites.
Gas prices are skyrocketing but when a libtardo is at the helm the libtardo MSM turns a blind eye to the real facts. Well most make the big buck so who cares right HA morons?
So much more to say today but it’s Good Friday and time to head to church for celebrations of Jesus’ life.
Hey union hacks… you gotta love this.
What is it with Anthropology Professors nowadays?
Is it the water?
See the fine print…
How much you wanna bet these perps are Obummer jock straps?
LMAO!! The voters yell at the Randroid-Ryan lovin’ tea bag Republicans to keep their dirty socialist mitts off their social security and medicare!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....52120.html
Hmmm. McSame is for the Libyan Rebels.. Steps on Libyan soil to voice his support.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....52427.html
The typical moronic chickenshit jerk who suffers from obama derangement syndrome is totally freaked out!
What a gallery of total dopes..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/
I wish huffpo had permalinks to this kind of stuff.
That’s the typical fear-mongering from the right wing bullshit, obama derangement syndrome websites.
However it’s far from a respectable consensus.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....lenews_wsj
The only thing f’d is a certain credulous wingnut’s brain cells.
Randroid Ryan – the gift that keeps on giving. From a right wing leaning economist:
http://www.economy.com/dismal/.....F622EF6FA4
All to give more tax cuts to the rich. The Randroid’s “plan” is an utter disaster and is dead on arrival.
It seems darwhyle doesnt like the fact that the queen of washington got over a million dollars from out of state contributors….
So here they are again…via the Times..
About 16 percent of Gov. Christine Gregoire’s campaign contributions have come from donors living outside Washington. Rossi’s out-of-state contributions are about 3 percent of his total.
Gregoire’s cash contributions*
In-state: $7,209,907
Out-of-state: $1,349,638
Number of out-of-state contributors: 5,010
Average per out-of-state contributor: $269
Rossi’s cash contributions*
In-state: $6,518,120
Out-of-state: $203,877
Number of out-of-state contributors: 249
Average per out-of-state contributor: $819
Gregoire’s top donor states
California: 1,600 contributions, $260,824
New York: 636 contributions, $162,795
Washington, D.C.: 188 contributions, $86,720
Massachusetts: 359 contributions, $78,243
Oregon: 326 contributions, $63,750
Rossi’s top donor states
California: 110 contributions, $88,390
Texas: 46 contributions, $40,075
Hawaii: 19 contributions, $13,900
Illinois: 13 contributions, $8,900
Missouri: 8 contributions, $7,050
@55
Um… Gregoire’s the incumbent and the election was a walk in the park. Anytime you have that situation the incumbent, regardless of party, is going to have more out of state money.
From the toadstool@54
Oh Really ylb? Mark Zandi… chosen economist of Christina Romer… failed academic economic advisor of Preznit Obummer! Chosen economist of Jared Bernstein who advises Joe Biden!
ylb, the yapping lapdog bozo of this $4 trillion and counting debt adding sadministration.
Remember your words Michael the next time a Republican gets out of state monies and you whine like a leetle baby!
Corrected and verified dopey!
yapping lapdog bozo@50,
And Ezra Klein, someone you love to quote here said in your article
Hmmm… a lucent moment from Ezra Klein of Journolist? Whodathunkit? Yet Palin Deranged Syndrome morons like yourself ylb love to implement class warfare every chance you get on this blog.
@56
thats not the point.
The point was that darwhyle and his buddies were crying because they claim(with no backup) that tim eyman’s initiatives get a bunch of out of state money.
I was merely demonstrating that their loving queen recieved a bunch of out of state money as well – and somehow they didnt cry over it.
If it were me, I would make out of state money illegal for all state and local elections.
Moved to Friday Night Funnies
zzzzzz…. Here’s some quotes pulled out of your stupid butt:
http://horsesass.org/?p=29873#comment-1024235
and…
http://horsesass.org/?p=29873#comment-1024337
Indeed why is Puddybud such a moron? Easy – he likes being that way.
gonna go for a drive later.
the production of greenhouse gases will be epic….I love it.
Speculation probably does play a role in high gas prices. But the fact that it’s a finite resource that we’re using more and more of probably has more to do with it.
but we have plenty right now for our current needs. i’m guessing you also teach at a state college?