Gas prices as a political tool??

[4dsc]

I heard an interesting story over the weekend about gas price in California and how they may have been used as a political tool.

Here's how it alledged went down in California. Prior to the special elections to replace the corrupt republican Conningham, the price of gasoline in California shot up to about $3.75 gallon, pissing alot of people off. But amazingly, just about a couple of weeks before the election price went down to a reported $3.13 a gallon..

Now think of HOW the psyche of the people would change when prices of gas went down to a level they thought was much more reasonable..

I am now wondering whether or not this will be used in the upcoming fall elections nationwide??

[Nickster]

1. I think it's already in play. Prices are dropping everywhere. They got

the per gallon rate up so high, that they have to start bringing them down slowly over a longer period of time. Just watch, it's going to go lower and lower over the coming weeks. There will be little spikes along the way but the overall trend will be downwards.

[primative1]

2. Markets dont work that way ...

Just call me chuckles but I dont think BushCo dictates price. The commodity markets are a speculative pit. Just show them a ickle of a tropical development anywhere near the carribean and they will gleefully run the price back up with a frenzy; regardless of political result.
GOPers are in for themselves first and the overall picture be damned. Look at how they all piled on shorting the markets after 9-11. The heck with patriotism when there is a buck to be gouged.

[sam sarrha]

4. i worked for shell research development corp.. i was told they do

manipulate the price,, to manipulate the psyche of the people. about as high up as you can get

it was at the funeral of his son, we were all hippies and he was doing some bonding with his sons friends, and he was really drunk. he was telling us we were living a more righteous life and and a lot of what we suspected was true.. about the war and the economy, and social control

[sam sarrha]

5. well you havent been here very long or listened to Air America at all

apparently..

[Nickster]

6. He may not directly dictate the price, but the policies that he has chosen

to follow have certainly not stood in the way of wild speculation by unchecked hedge funds and derivative traders driving the prices up. I think a 300% increase in crude prices has more than priced in the "scary" market force happenings and unrest. His policies have allowed OPEC to run up the price of crude on the world. The Saudis are rolling in new oil money and amazingly silent about the unrest in the ME. That's because we are gladly paying the Saudi "oil tax". Dubya's transgressions have allowed millions of barrels of oil everyday to remain in the ground in Iraq. Less supply means prices go up. I seem to recall the same kind of scam being pulled in California with their electricity.

It's a bunch of parasites feeding off of each other and they realize they still need each other to survive, so when danger, like say an election is looming, they all start backing off and help provide the illusion that things are getting so much better. Until the threat has gone away. Keeping Republicans in office protects everyone's ability to grab as much cash as they can. Public opinion trends with gas prices, the higher they go, the worse people think of Dubya. People thinking bad about Dubya effects incumbent Republicans up and down the line. I'm looking for all of the speculative forces to start moving to heating oil and natural gas to make up for the gouging they can't do in the crude oil market.

So no, Dubya doesn't dictate the price, but he sure helps it along its merry way. I don't think it's any coincidence that two oil men are running things and the price of gasoline has doubled in the last 3 years.

Don't kid yourself, oil is not a normal market situation. Normal economics doesn't apply

[primative1]

12. Normal ..

Hmm ... Inventories are near record levels and prices ,,, are also at near record levels. Doesnt sound like a free market at work to me.
Dont get me wrong. I didnt mean to imply that BushCo was not responsible for engineering an OVERALL direction for prices (to the moon), but I was saying I dont think he has actual control over the exact timing and scope of price swings.
To manipulate the price for election purposes he would have to be able to call the time and place and outside of the strategic reserves he has no direct way of influencing daily prices swings.
As an aside I have heard it speculated that this has been precisly what he has been using the strategic reserve purchases for, acting as a trading floor to which speculators can be confident always chases the price up thus limting their potential for losses and allowing them to bid the price up aggressivly without fear of losing too greatly.

[BlueJac]

3. You can count on anything this November!

[INdemo]

7. And the answer is ....Hell yes

After all it was Bush and Cheney who put the oil companies in the position to earn billions in profits.There is no way the oil industry can accept the Democrats as the majority.Even if they sacrifice profits now they will regain those if Repukes remain in power.In 2008 we will see this manipulation as well.

[KKKarl is an idiot]

8. Gas prices do hurt the psyche

The buyers of oil are all the same everyday. They determine what price needs to be paid. I am sure they can make a determination to fix the price to whatever they want it to be by getting all the major buyers online. Companies sometimes work like this to ensure prices remain at a high profit margin.

[Javaman]

9. Do we really need to discuss the obvious? nt

[mtnsnake]

11. Yes we do, so we can deal with it appropriately when it happens

The more that people are aware of it, the more likely they won't fall for Republican charades at the pumps. The sheeple need to know that any pre-election price drop is just a lame effort to buy their votes, and those efforts will most likely be followed up by more obscene price hikes once the election is over.

[mtnsnake]

10. Yup, I've been predicting this for almost a year. Check it out

Aug 14, 2006: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1907157

Nov 3, 2005: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5258223