Crude Oil Hits $99 A Barrel

AP:

Crude oil prices rose above a record $99 per barrel Wednesday as worries about inadequate winter supplies in the Northern Hemisphere and news of refinery problems stoked bullish sentiment.

The declining U.S. dollar and speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will again cut interest rates also boosted prices. Some investors put their money into oil contracts, betting that gains in their price will offset dollar weakness.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[AntiFascistMajority]

Chávez sees oil at $200 if Iran invaded
By Benedict Mander in Caracas

Published: November 13 2007 23:32


Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, has warned that oil prices could reach $200 a barrel if the US invaded Iran.
…

Soon after he gained power in 1999, Mr Chavez managed to persuade Opec to maintain oil prices at between $22 and $28. But while the lower limit was kept, the upper limit was not.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e346fdc-923f-11dc-8981-0000779fd2ac.html

(Note to reichwing anti-Chavez warmongers: Chavez does not CAUSE oil prices to increase. He merely makes accurate predictions.)
.

[JohnCitizen]

THE SUPPLY-SIDE SCAM

The George Bush $3 trillion dollar tax giveaway to the rich over the past 6 years has been a disaster for average Americans. Supply-side (trickle-down) economics is a bogus theory promoted by those who benefit from it. In a mature capitalist system, supply side never rules, it is always the demand side of the equation that governs growth and well-being. Think about the 1930s Depression, General Motors had plenty of supply, but demand evaporated.

Previous U.S. economic downturns have been cured with only $200-300 billion in tax cuts targeted to the middle class, because the consumer (the great middle class and 2/3rds of the economy) spends that tax cut and primes the economic pump. But George Bush has raised the debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay from almost $6 trillion to $9 trillion for current economic growth (i.e. we all get trickled on, as the rich spend some small fraction of their gains). Unfortunately, this supply-side growth has been largely and uniquely without wage gains, and so has shrunk the middle class that makes America strong and great. Also, this growth has already ended ($3 trillion flushed down the toilet and gone!), as the FED has had to cut interest rates because recession looms.

Corporations (the supply side) are now loaded with cash, but there is no place to spend it because they do not see any demand. So many corporations are using that cash to buy back their stock - WOW, supply side is wonderful in how it fulfills our needs (NOT)?? Meanwhile, no demand indicates that the middle class is slowly being tapped out, as home values (most of their net worth and the credit card of last resort) are stagnant or falling in price, and a considerable number of homeowners are heading for foreclosure. With the rich-poor divide increasing, we are headed toward previous shining examples of trickle-down economics: South America of the recent past and feudalism in the Middle Ages (South America and feudalism also had no wage gains!).

[blytzd]

If the dollar keeps bombing they won't want 200 on them for a barrel but 200 Euros.

[dgscol]

It is upsetting, but on the bright side the increase in the price of oil, has the insurgents hesitiating in Iraq. Have you noticed?

They started the aggression to get more for their oil - in the form of terror acts. The Arabs would be happy with $200/barrel or twenty times what they were receiving before. It proves that terrorism works, and that is a bad precedent. Not to mention paying $5-6/gal for gas. Do you want to live like that? Remember high gas prices create a large part of our trade deficit, and increase transportation costs so people are thrown out of work. That hurts people here in real terms. Just because some Arabs want to fight over the price does not mean we should, or can , just roll over and give it to them.

We have the Arabs over a barrel, not the other way around. They are living on sand, and they need to establish trade to survive (An Iranian prince once told me - if we only had the water and greenery we once had, we would rule the earth). A fair price should be established, possibly after the Saudis attain control over their population. Here, we need to create incentives for people to conserve. How about a personal income tax break for cutting consumption ?

[Blutus]

Good!

Break our addiction to oil!

Raise the price through the flipping
roof!

It's the only hope for alternative
energy and the only way to really
win the war on "tearr".


America will not change until
we hit crisis mode.

Well, it's on the way!

[MajorKong]

Oh well. After society collapses at least we'll all look really cool in our Mad Max outfits.

[blooddoc]

Pick up an extra tube of K-Y Jelly at the drugstore and get ready to bend over...this is going to hurt a little...

[ceasenake]

C'mon $100 per barrel, I know you can do it!

Man, this will be a huge news story when it tops $100, it'll be funny to hear all the pundits freaking out.

[fourex]

GW Bush's third world economic plan of paying off debt with devalued currency, (Bush Dollar .50 cents) is coming home to roost.

[pennyfortheguy]

You know what this does to the value of the oil that is here underneath us. Suddenly makes even the more difficult-to-get-out-of-the-ground stuff more viable.
Now, as a solution to the Illegal Immigrant situation here, the conflux of high oil prices and contrite wanna be citizens makes it feasible that we can now 'mine' for oil. If they wish to remain here in the US, they'll need to serve a minimum of 7 years on the 'Big Dig' somewhere in Oklahoma. We could enlist the services of the 'Minutemen' to procure (shanghai) the labor for the effort. For every Illegal Immigrant they would 'recruit' we could give them a voucher for one free fill up for their F-150's. Neat idea or what?

[ErnestineBass]

Just an observation...

I find it curious that posts concerned with our rapidly declining economic fortunes are generally troll-free zones.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

[CologneCitizen]

Every time the oil price goes up, oil companies make good money on the side, apart from the rise they have to pay themselves. This is worldwide common practice.

The Bush scam is close to perfect, because his friends make a lot of money from the everlasting war, plus later at the pump. If there is still an "approval rate" for Bush, well, how dumb can you get ?

[Sundialsvc4]

"The Federal Reserve will cut interest rates," and the The Clouds Will Part and the Angels Will Sing and all will be Beautiful Once Again.

Bull-roar. Take two reality-pills and call me in the morning.

If your country declares war upon the oil-fields and threatens everyone in the area with fire and brimstone, what do you THINK will happen to the price of what you need most from that region ... especially(!) when bought by YOU?

If your country "borrows from itself" $1 million a minute, 24/7/365, thus flooding the market with your own increasingly-worthless cash, what do you THINK that other businessmen will do? You have made it INSANITY to consider keeping your currency as "the world reserve." Ain't gonna happen.

And you, dear foolish country which saw fit to import everything and produce nothing, will pay the price of your own leader's foolishness ... and, your own.

Did you, when you spent (and spend) trillions of dollars on your 'weapons systems,' not forsee that there are MANY interpretations of that word, 'national security?' That a debtor nation that won't produce what it needs for itself cannot be, by any definition, 'autonomous' nor 'secure?'

Did you naiively suppose that the only way that your fellow-man could counter you was to put itself into the GPS-coordinates of your fancy "whiz-bangs?" Did you, the great Hammer, imagine that everything in the world must therefore be a Nail?

People don't think and act like that. Not on the national stage ... not even on the playground. They're smart, they're resourceful, they know how to smell a stinking rat, and they know what to do about one. And, if the situation were reversed, so would you and for the same reasons.

Wanna change things? Change America. Make it what it once was. Demand that it be what it could be.

[balance]

$100 Oil would be a symbolic omen of the future to come.

A stunning silence on our country's long term Oil crisis, and the consequent void of national leadership on alternative energy, logically indicates something is seriously wrong with our energy policies. Alternative energy requires national leadership because solutions may need bold initiatives on new infrastructure.

But there is just complete inaction.

The country is in denial:

(article on the psychology of denial)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/health/research/20deni.html?ei=5087&em=&en=78a26952353ee42d&ex=1195794000&pagewanted=print

"If the infraction was described as a mistake and the applicant apologized, viewers gave him the benefit of the doubt and said they would trust him with job responsibilities. But if the infraction was described as fraud and the person apologized, viewers’ trust evaporated — and even having evidence that he had been cleared of misconduct did not entirely restore that trust."

Fraud about the Iraq war, and policies "pumping up" the price Oil are likely.

Bush Jr. won't apologize about the WMD fraud because the truth about how the Iraq War was started, is worse than honestly discussing it.

"Faced with the high odor of real perfidy, people unwilling to risk a break skew their perception of reality much more purposefully. One common way to do this is to recast clear moral breaches as foul-ups, stumbles or lapses in competence — because those are more tolerable, said Dr. Kim, of U.S.C. In effect, Dr. Kim said, people “reframe the ethical violation as a competence violation.” "

The Office of the President of the United States has no dearth of opinions, information, and advice, from many free & independant sources, being offered daily.
Incompetence is the least likely explaination for the WMD falsehoods used as cover for invading Iraq. Incompetence is also extremely unlikely for the inaction and lack of leadership on alternative energy.

[Mike169]

Let's see...when the Iraq war began the price of oil was in the $20 to $30 range/bbl. This country is run by the oil interests in the person of George Bush who is connected in every which way to the Saudi oil interests. Iraq has the second largest oil fields in the world. Oil is now nearly four times the price. Let's see...who is making money here? Could this be still more corruption from the most corrupt administration and the most corrupt party since the country's founding? Connect the dots.