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When will this stupidity end?
by Arthur Webster Just plain honesty
Arthur Webster 
Just plain honesty
Here, in Europe, especially in Spain and France, lorry drivers and fishermen are embroiled in a violent and totally inneffective strike because of the cost of fuel.
Lorry drivers have been attacking each other in very bloody confrontations. One driver was run over and killed but the van driver who did it (it was in the middle of a very violent attack upon his van by several pickets) was too scared to stop until he was several miles away when he gave himself up to the police. Another lorry driver was in his cab when it was set on fire - he got out but was burned.
Burning lorries is not strike action - it is criminal damage!
Fishermen have been catching fish to feed their families but some give it away rather than send it to market (though fuel is not their only gripe).
Lorry loads of goods have been given away at road sides.
What has this strike managed to achieve, so far?
Well, for one thing it has let the government know what it already knew - that the price of fuel is unacceptably high.
For another, it has led to garages and shops running out of goods to sell. There are three garages and four supermarkets in easy walking distance of my apartment. None of the garages had diesel today and none of the supermarkets had any perishable stock to sell and not much of anything else, either.
The government, of course, wrings its hands and bemoans the fact that there is very little they can do that will provide a long term solution.
But they are forgetting about the gamblers who are forcing fuel prices up deliberately.
They are forgetting about the oil 'futures' buyers.
Why is it possible for someone with $100,000 to buy oil 'futures' of $1,000,000?
Has anybody, I wonder, looked at what these people are doing? I would not be surprised if there was not a ring of, say, 100 people, each with, say $500,000, each, to invest. This ring can buy futures to the value of $500,000,000. Don't you think that, with that sort of clout, they can make damn sure that the price of oil in the market place goes up to protect their profits?
Has anybody, I wonder, looked at the well-head price of oil and compared it with what the refineries are paying for it?
One simple fix, though not a quick one, would simply be an alteration in the rules so that oil futures buyers could only buy for the full price - not 10%.
Jun 14th 2008 15:47
Just plain honestyHere, in Europe, especially in Spain and France, lorry drivers and fishermen are embroiled in a violent and totally inneffective strike because of the cost of fuel.
Lorry drivers have been attacking each other in very bloody confrontations. One driver was run over and killed but the van driver who did it (it was in the middle of a very violent attack upon his van by several pickets) was too scared to stop until he was several miles away when he gave himself up to the police. Another lorry driver was in his cab when it was set on fire - he got out but was burned.
Burning lorries is not strike action - it is criminal damage!
Fishermen have been catching fish to feed their families but some give it away rather than send it to market (though fuel is not their only gripe).
Lorry loads of goods have been given away at road sides.
What has this strike managed to achieve, so far?
Well, for one thing it has let the government know what it already knew - that the price of fuel is unacceptably high.
For another, it has led to garages and shops running out of goods to sell. There are three garages and four supermarkets in easy walking distance of my apartment. None of the garages had diesel today and none of the supermarkets had any perishable stock to sell and not much of anything else, either.
The government, of course, wrings its hands and bemoans the fact that there is very little they can do that will provide a long term solution.
But they are forgetting about the gamblers who are forcing fuel prices up deliberately.
They are forgetting about the oil 'futures' buyers.
Why is it possible for someone with $100,000 to buy oil 'futures' of $1,000,000?
Has anybody, I wonder, looked at what these people are doing? I would not be surprised if there was not a ring of, say, 100 people, each with, say $500,000, each, to invest. This ring can buy futures to the value of $500,000,000. Don't you think that, with that sort of clout, they can make damn sure that the price of oil in the market place goes up to protect their profits?
Has anybody, I wonder, looked at the well-head price of oil and compared it with what the refineries are paying for it?
One simple fix, though not a quick one, would simply be an alteration in the rules so that oil futures buyers could only buy for the full price - not 10%.
Jun 14th 2008 15:47
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Comments
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Jean DAndrea
RetiredIt's really nauseating, the way that Corporations can make such payouts to retiring CEO's etc., when they fight to keep the pays of the workers at a minimum level. Obscene is a better word to describe it. The banks here in Australia are making record profits, their executives are receiving huge bonuses, and yet they keep putting up the fees on transactions, which only hurt those who can least afford it. It's a sick world we live in, and most of the illness is caused by greed. Jun 14th 2008 19:31 |
well it's really funny, a couple of weeks ago oil prices dropped $ per barrel yet the price at the pump went up 10 cents a gallon.
I spoke to a woman today who had to get a second job to pay for the fuel for her to get to her first job.
and on April 4th 2006 we saw this news story
Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.
Exxon
Lee Raymond's retirement package -- worth nearly $400 million -- is one of the largest in history.
(ABC News)
Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
I guess they have to get that $400 mill from somewhere. If this doesn't prove gas prices are artificially inflated to fatten already fat cats, I don't know what will
Jun 14th 2008 16:27