Sunday, November 30, 2008

OIL AND THEORIES DON'T MIX

This past summer when oil hit $147.00 a barrel, and gas was over $4.50 a gallon, pundits on both the Left and Right pointed their fingers at the oil companies as the culprits. The theory was that the greedy oil barons controlled the market and manipulated the price so as to reap outrageous and obscene profits at the expense of us downtrodden car owners.

Well, the last time I looked, the price of oil was hovering close to $50.00 a barrel, and I recently filled up for $1.63 a gallon. Have those greedy and ruthless oil barons suddenly gone soft in the head? Someone please tell me how the price of oil can drop more than 60% within a few months if the oil companies control the market and manipulate prices. Did they all take a vow of altruism over the autumn months?

The plummeting prices should end the crackpot notion that the oil companies run the world. Price is determined by supply and demand. The problem is, there is always an ample supply of ridiculous theories demanded by people who have no conception of how the dynamic engine of free markets operates.

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