Oil Speculation Just the Beginning
In the chart above, we can see that in January of 2006, the price of a barrel of oil was trading around $63. By January of 2007 it was about the same after a short rise beforehand, and by January of 2008 a barrel of oil was trading at around $94. As of July 11, 2008, a barrel of oil traded briefly at above $147, a new record (and off of this particular chart). The price of a barrel of oil has increased by over 50% just since January of this year! And from January of 2006 to July of 2008, the price has increased by over 125%!
Another interesting view is to look at that trend from about 2002 until the present, a period which coincides with preparations for the invasion of Iraq up until the present state of affairs in that region. This trend itself is interesting given that we were told that the invasion would bring stability to the region and the world, not only militarily but economically as well. The more recent time period is interesting as well in that there is a drastic and continued rise in oil prices from January of 2007 up until the present. Has there been a supply reduction somewhere in the world in this time period, that has caused the price to spike in such a way? Has there been an increased extreme demand for oil in the last year and a half, a far greater demand for oil than in the time period previous to this? Not so much that I'm aware of. Supply and demand are not the issues for the most part; what's happening is that speculators are raising the price of oil in trading by buying and holding futures contracts, creating an artificial scarcity in the trading of paper, not of the actual oil itself. This is really a crime, that of course is not being regulated by the oil barons of the Bush Administration, because they and their friends around the world profit off of the situation. It's an artificial situation, in which commodity prices such as oil, tend not to fall back to "true" levels once pumped up in this manner, but stay artificially high in the longer run. This has implications for all levels of society, because transportation costs affect the prices of everything that we use, as we all are increasingly coming to know. Yet, the national leadership, including the Congress, does nothing to address this obvious "scam" going on, even as other sectors of financial markets like investment banks and mortgage related financial firms continue to fail in a way never before seen in this country since the Great Depression. The lack of any movement to address really an emergency situation, to me can only be interpreted as what may be a planned collapse of the United States on the part of elite interests who have taken the nation on up to its present state. For what purpose? Look for the loss of democratic functions and institutions in this country that the United States has always been critically identified with. The coming attack by this nation upon Iran will parallel the beginnings of American financial collapse and the attempted creation of an American Fascism, in which patriotism and flag-waving will be accompanied by mass starvation and hunger in American cities for the first time ever. It's a massive restructuring of our way of life, in order to serve the elite few in perpetuity. Like all frauds though, this one will fail too, and the criminals behind what is now going on in this country, will be dealt justice. I believe it to the core of my being.
posted by Frank at 2:57 PM
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