Wall Street has gamed the system to keep oil prices high despite increased domestic production.

The price of oil used to be set by domestic prices in a town in Oklahoma. The price for domestic oil has been dropping and the US has begun to export more oil than it is buying for the first time in decades.

The price of oil in the US SHOULD be going down by quite a bit but, Wall Street, addicted to the high profits oil provides, has decided to change the rules in mid-game in order to keep the big bucks flowing into their coffers.

The U.S. Is Now EXPORTING Refined Petroleum Products, But the Oil Companies Are Gaming the System By Switching To a Different Benchmark to Keep U.S. Fuel Prices HIGH … And the Keystone Pipeline Will Create Even HIGHER U.S. Prices

Until this time last year, gas prices hinged on the price of U.S. crude oil, set daily in a small town in Cushing, Oklahoma – the largest oil-storage hub in the country. Today, gasoline prices instead track the price of a type of oil found in the North Sea called Brent crude. And Brent crude, it so happens, trades at a premium to U.S. oil by around $20 a barrel.

***

So, even as we drill for more oil in the U.S., the price benchmark has dodged the markdown bullet by taking cues from the more expensive oil. As always, we must compete with the rest of the world for petroleum – including our own.

This is an unprecedented shift. Since the dawn of the modern-day oil markets in downtown Manhattan in the 1980s, U.S. gasoline prices have followed the domestic oil price ….

In the past year, U.S. oil prices have repeatedly traded in the double-digits below the Brent price. That is money Wall Street cannot afford to walk away from.

Washington Blog

See also: CNN.com

No matter what we do, they keep gaming the system to get richer while the little guy suffers.

There's a game called Stops and Puts. Some bet the oil stocks will go up or down and they make so much money per point. Precious metals has this game too. These are contracts called Futures.

Ah the shareholders, mustn't let them down. Sigh.

Unfortunately, the entire "Wall Street" system is nothing more than a group of rich "rail jockeys", armed with nano second computers that play the odds down to the trillionth of a second before the "race" begins. The losers in this race are the average Americans that don't have a chance to get in on the "action". In addition, these crooks use inside information not accessible to the general public to make their riches, at the expense of everyone else.

But Jamie Dimon said it was ridiculous to blame commodity speculators for the price of oil????

To make matters worse, the oil extracted in the U.S. is "sweet crude" a much better quality than the "brent" being used as the trademark the world over. This means that refining the american oil costs much, much less, therefore increases the profit margins very substantially!

An industry which has suffered directly and greatly from this fraud (yes, let's not pussy foot around) is the airline industry, who hedged its investment to actual cost, when the recently unregulated commodities market decided to use a different benchmark.

Here is another example as to why regulation of markets is essential, because, if left alone the traders will not hesitate to game the system in their favor, at your real-world expense.

I'll be right back...

I'm back... here you go, a very enlightening discussion on this exact topic.

Skip to the +/- 13:00 mark, press play and enjoy!


the Billmeister

Who on Wall Street is in collusion to let the Chinese buy up billions of dollars in gas an oil leases on U.S. soil?
Obama stops us from drilling to become independent from foreign oil sources and then allows the Chinese to buy it up? Is anybody paying attention to what this guy is doing?
Oil Leases

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
Unfortunately, the entire "Wall Street" system is nothing more than a group of rich "rail jockeys", armed with nano second computers that play the odds down to the trillionth of a second before the "race" begins. The losers in this race are the average Americans that don't have a chance to get in on the "action". In addition, these crooks use inside information not accessible to the general public to make their riches, at the expense of everyone else.

Spot on actually.




Just a tid bit.........

The Senate on Thursday passed legislation barring lawmakers from using insider information for personal profit, sending the bill to the White House.

Senate passes bill on insider trading, sends measure to Obama

Isnt this "illegal" for the rest of America? Why did it take so long? Why did they need a bill for it?

That doesn't mean they cant pass it on,to some else,who holds their money................

And that's just the politicians,who are part of the "in" crowd......

That doesn't mean they cant pass it on,to some else,who holds their money................

reply to post by sonnny1

Great point. You and I know that is EXACTLY what they will do.

Originally posted by Nite_wing
Who on Wall Street is in collusion to let the Chinese buy up billions of dollars in gas an oil leases on U.S. soil?
Obama stops us from drilling to become independent from foreign oil sources and then allows the Chinese to buy it up? Is anybody paying attention to what this guy is doing?
Oil Leases

And here's the reason from the article you linked:

Are they so desperate to have China continue lending money to the United States that they would allow the Chinese government to pillage our precious energy resources?

Which is what I thought when I read your post. We are kissing a Socialist/Communist nations a$$, Why?

reply to post by FortAnthem


What if advancements in liquid metal alloys presents us with a plastic alternative?

The world of tomorrow might not be so oil dependant.

Originally posted by Billmeister

An industry which has suffered directly and greatly from this fraud (yes, let's not pussy foot around) is the airline industry, who hedged its investment to actual cost, when the recently unregulated commodities market decided to use a different benchmark.

This explains why an airline has bought up an oil refinery outside of Philly.

An Airline Buys an Oil Refinery; What Took Them So Long?

The nation’s second-largest airline by traffic, after United Continental Holdings Inc., said it will purchase the Trainer, Pa., complex from Phillips 66, a refining and marketing business that will be spun off from ConocoPhillips on Tuesday.

“Acquiring the Trainer refinery is an innovative approach to managing our largest expense,” Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson said in a written statement. “This modest investment, the equivalent of the list price of a new widebody aircraft, will allow Delta to reduce its fuel expense by $300 million annually and ensure jet fuel availability in the Northeast.” Mr. Anderson said the assets being purchased are worth $1 billion. …

In 2011, Delta spent $11.7 billion on fuel, which amounted to 36% of its operating costs. The previous year, when the tab was $2.8 billion lower, fuel consumed 30% of Delta’s expenses.

Freakonomics

It makes sense; instead of buying the refinery's oil after the gamed mark up, they can buy cheaper, domestic oil and save a fortune. If only us little guys had this option to save money as well.

And here is where i disagree sorry peeps:

Oil is a global commodity that is traded from London to Tokyo to Beijing and all parts in between the world sets the price of the barrel of oil.

However when you jump from country to country you see a high degree in price at the pump and those prices are set by their local laws and regulations.

Sorry liberals have been telling me i should hate Wall Street since the days of Teddy Roosevelt everything they have done is to destroy commerce and competition because the simple fact is the more people competing to bring a good(oil) or a service to market the cheaper that will be.

And of course the Government gets a cut right off the top from ever gallon of gasoline sold in this country 365 days a year.

Sigh free market people it doesn't exist and that is our problems right along with the monetary intervention from that other government crap pot since oil is tied to the dollar the federal reserve.

No one has to agree with me nothing on here say anyone does.

Originally posted by neo96
the simple fact is the more people competing to bring a good(oil) or a service to market the cheaper that will be.

Bull crap

A cup of Coffee was $.50 - $.90 15 years ago

Today the same cup is $1.90 - $3.50

Or lets take a can of Soda

or lets take

Water

Or lets take

Candy

All have a huge surge in market share, all have increased over 100% minimum

reply to post by braindeadconservatives


Yawn

Never heard of inflation have we?

What effect does printing over 6 trillion dollars worth of worthtess paper have on prices?

There is over 10 trillion dollars of paper in circulation

www.usdebtclock.org...

In 2000 there was not even 5 trillion

reply to post by neo96


Inflation is not at 300% Neo

sorry to say

so "drill baby drill !"

is pure BS ?

why am I not shocked ?

the worst part is they not only know it, but are on the oil companies payroll, so they are more or less telling us what the oil company wants us to hear

puke baby puke !!!!

Better believe Wall Street is gaming the system, and any attempt to put regulation back on the market to curb this sort of abuse is being shot down by the bought-and-paid for Congress members.

Blame Oil Speculators, Not Obama, For Rising Oil Prices (posted to ATS a few months back)

How Wall Street Drives Up Gas Prices -- Ripping Us Off and Killing Jobs

It's a common belief that oil prices are set on the world market by supply and demand. Less supply and/or more demand causes prices to rise. Oil is getting harder to find; OPEC is holding back supply; China and India are guzzling it up; Iran is threatening to blow it up. And regulations are getting in the way of drill, baby, drill -- end of story.

But this fixation on blind market forces ignores the fact that Wall Street is financializing the commodities markets – especially oil – as it seeks new ways to pick our pockets. The same greedy swindlers who puffed up the housing bubble and then milked it dry are now hard at work doing the same with gasoline.

What is financialization and why is it coming to the oil industry?

Here’s a chilling definition provided by economist Thomas I. Palley (PDF):

Financialization is a process whereby financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes…..Its principal impacts are to (1) elevate the significance of the financial sector relative to the real sector, (2) transfer income from the real sector to the financial sector, and (3) increase income inequality and contribute to wage stagnation.

Even the vaunted Keystone Pipeline is an extension of this ripoff - that pipeline will not increase the flow of tar sands oil from Canada to the US - several pipelines already do that - but it will bypass domestic refineries to bring the oil to the export terminal in Houston. The strategy, as TransCanada told it's investors, is to REMOVE the glut of oil in the midwest, which has been suppressing prices, and bring that oil to Houston so it can be sold to foreign markets for a greater profit.

It will effectively RAISE prices in America.

And the brain dead so-called "conservatives" are deep in the pockets of the financial sector pushing to make this happen.

the Government gets a cut right off the top from ever gallon of gasoline sold in this country 365 days a year

It's not the taxes that have gone through the ceiling. Any attempt to say it's due to taxes is either misleading or stupid.