Ben, I can't buy the supply and demand argument any more. I can't help but conclude it's pure price gouging and windfall profit-taking.
Why does the price of crude today result in an immediate spike at the pump, when the oil purchased on those futures might still be in the ground over in Saudi?
Prices went up $1.50 a gallon in the 3 days after Katrina, well before the extent of refinery damage was known and before any adverse affect could have occurred to gas supplies. Yet, in the next 6 weeks, when any shortages that occurred would have had their greatest effect, prices fell to below where they were right before Katrina
Could it have had something to do with Katrina hitting the week before Labor Day, after people made their final vacation plans (seeing how prices had remained relatively stable since Memorial Day when they usually rise) and the oil barons saw the opportunity to take some quick windfall profits?
Home heating oil? Most of what's currently in the supply line was refined months ago. And it's been a mild winter. Yet, they cite the need to divert crude supplies to heating oil production as one rationale for the prices spiking after the first week of December.
Sorry--I'm not some wild-eyed lefty, but I ain't buying Big Oil's bullscheit any more
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