Who Is Really Manipulating Gas Prices?
It happens every time gas prices rise: Washington blames “greedy” oil speculators for arbitrarily driving up oil prices. But private individuals cannot “manipulate” prices. Only politicians can do that.
Oil prices, like all market prices, are determined by supply and demand. Speculators make money when they correctly anticipate future supply and demand conditions. If they try to arbitrarily bid up the price of oil, then the only thing that happens in the long run is that they lose boat loads of money.
The reason speculators are bidding up the price of oil today is because they foresee real problems with the future availability of oil—in large part because of government policies restricting future oil supplies. (See this Investor’s Business Daily editorial for a sad array of examples.)
It’s not Wall Street that’s manipulating oil prices—it’s Washington. Speculators are merely the messengers. And, as Eric Dennis explains in an old episode of Power Hour, having such messengers around is a tremendous benefit to everyone involved in the economy.
If we’re concerned about ensuring cheap and abundant energy—I know I am—then the thing to advocate for is the liberation of energy producers.
4 Comments to “Who Is Really Manipulating Gas Prices?”
Makes sense to me. The only actions the politicians have taken regarding oil and energy is to ban development of huge natural supplies, prevented the development of nuclear power plants, refineris, pipelines, and tax the oil companies are still able to produce. It’s a wonder we have any oil at all at any price.
If libertarians only had 450 bemmers, so couldnt register, and there were only two other parties, ACT, and a communist party, and these two parties had pretty much exactly 50:50 support according to polls, are you telling me that you wouldn’t vote act, and encourage your fellow libz to do the same?Sure this is an extreme example, but it demonstrates the principle of voting for the lesser of two evils.
Why the liberation of just energy probucers? Whadabout everybody else? Maybe the answer is, we have to start somewhere, we can’t do it all at once. But, everybody will have his own place to start. For now, I skip the details and jump to the conclusion. The government must decide where to start. But, how do we unbind government from the binds keeping it from doing its job and freeing things up in an orderly fashion? Again, skipping the details for now, I say, get the crooks and their criminal plans outa the way, or bypass then. Take control of the physical POWER meant for government, which is now in their hands, and use it for conducting government by law, instead of crime by criminal plans. Crooks have seized the power, over much time, have DISPLACED law and government, and have put the clamps on economics and society, by their plans, for their objectives. Take the power back. Then, government can start freeing things up and start performing its proper function, at home and abroad, according to law.
Of course, this implies a fundamentally narrower concept and definition of both law and government, which must be written and made public. It implies a narrower concept of society, a wider concept of crime (of initiatory PHYSICAL force), a narrower concept of morality (where solution of any issue of right and wrong leads only to egoism in its resolution, never to altruism), a narrower concept of REASON and RATIONALITY (based only on the life of the individual human and its need and benefit, even in such supposedly neutral things as physics and math, since there’s no fundamental separation between theory and practice; what does any rational person ever think for, if not for his life?), and the widest possible concept of existence, but based only on sensory perception and derivitive reason, thus, excluding any notion of unreason or anything supernatural or anything other than nature, whether religious or secular.
In moving from where we are now to a fully free society, I recognize the crucial importance of the educational efforts of the ARI and the ARC. But, I believe, the effort should explicate, publicly and in writing, a fundamentally narrower concept of law and government, and of morality, to everybody. I believe there will be appropriate times for the underlying epistemology and metaphysics to be publicly aired to everybody. These must be part of the philosophical effort, in order to make physical action and law making that is taken, and the ultimate results, substantial and permanent.
If only FOX showed Paul a shred of mgddaon respect during the Primary season. Only now are they starting to go OMG BIG GOVERNMENT! I agree with Paul, but Fox needs to go fuck themselves. All the government ever did under Bush was expand, and they never bitched once. It took an electoral drubbing for them to start talking about small government’ and fiscal responsibility’ again.