These steps could lower oil prices, but nobody'll take them

These steps could lower oil prices, but nobody'll take them

www.mcclatchydc.com

As gasoline prices soar to new records, America's president — and the two men who hope to succeed him — are offering only partial or long-term solutions and ignoring three steps that many experts say could bring some relief now.

Independent experts, however, said that government could take at least three other steps that could force oil and gasoline prices down immediately. Neither Bush nor McCain nor Obama endorse any of them.

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This is really interesting, I find it amazing that NONE of the presidential dudes are willing to commit to what it takes to reduce the price of oil.

This countries crutch is oil, we can not live without it and we can't live with it at the price it is at.

I am not happy with the candidates not being willing to do what is necessary and I think it speaks to their electablility.

I will refrain from talking about the 3 solutions experts see until others have read the article and the conversation starts. Enjoy!

www.mcclatchydc.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

These would only help in the immediate term...but not in the long term. We need better fiscal and monetary policies...people always point to interest rates but never to federal debt when it comes to dollar strength...but I have a news flash: Federal Debt has a much larger influence on dollar strength than interest rates. If we weren't pumping out so many treasuries we could have low interest rates for a long time...but I fear we have only burned all of that out, and we will have to suffer from rate hikes from the fed to help offset Washington's drunken spending. If you really want to cut gas price in the long term, I suggest this, get rid of the idiots in Washington that treat their guns and U.S. tax payer wallets the same...shoot (and spend) first ask questions later. Less conflict in the Middle East would have less speculative pressures in the oil markets, funny that no one complains when people speculate on stock prices...but if it's oil, it's a sin. That's 2 things that would work in the long term, number 3...alternative fuels. The thing that is GOOD about high oil prices is that we are now being forced into alternative fuels...what many people don't understand is that once you begin the industry the economies of scale will kick in and it will actually be much cheaper than oil. I'm not talking about burning 25% of our food to make 2% of our energy (ethanol is a stupid idea)...I'm talking nuclear, coal to liquid, solar, and hydrogen. We have all the resources...but you know who isn't allowing the free market to actually fix it? Washington. Stop blaming OPEC, in all reality they probably can't up output...blame Washington for being communists eager to spend our money on entitlement programs and wars, while allowing no solutions from the free market to cure the disease (addiction to oil) they caused.

[edit on 9-6-2008 by yellowcard]

I heard an idea yesterday. You might have read about it in an email that's doing the rounds (not had it myself though). The plan can be broken down into three actions:

1, Keep an eye on the top three oil companies' outlet prices,
2, Don't buy from the most expensive supplier,
3, Keep switching to the cheapest supplier.

The intention is to force the most expensive producer to lower prices to remain competitive with the cheapest. It could go the other way but then that would prove price-fixing which is illegal in Europe.

reply to post by yellowcard

You raise good points. My only problem while reading information as such and constantly listening to the news - I don't know where I (all hard working american's) fit into the solution. What can we do? Are we just pupet's strung on the lines of a finachial beast, or are we a voice in america that causes those in control to act differently?

Regulating speculation is a great idea, but doing so will remove Bush's friends' ability to make big bucks from the American consumers... so that's out.

Dumping the reserve would bring prices down a little, and might even make a few skiddish investors switch away form oil, which would help... but Bush had to be forced to quit pouring oil into the reserve... so that's out.

Raising the interest rate would help the falling dollar, but it would causae an almost immediate depression at this point. We would recover, and we would be better off financially for it, but that would tick off the Americans who vote... so that's out.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the bubble to burst. I'm in the market for a couple nice huge SUVs and some smaller heavy equipment. They should be getting real cheap soon, and when we come out on the other side, fuel prices will be affordable again. See? It's not all doom and gloom, well, not in the long term anyway.

TheRedneck