Gasoline Prices Heading Down - Were We Gouging Victims?
The summer driving season has peaked. The last big holiday weekend is upon us. Is there any correlation between the end of summer and the beginning of lower gasoline prices and is demand that much lower? It is enough to make you a conspiracy theorist.
The last big jump in gas prices was on April 29th. It hovered around $3.00 a gallon for four months, rising in June and July. They can talk all they want about supply and demand but I smell something here - the odor of price fixing.
You tell me. If there is no gouging and price fixing, why are oil company profits up? They pay wholesale prices and pass them on to us . If it is simply a pass on of costs then profits should remain about the same.
I know I’m not an economist, but something is wrong if profits are up so astronomically and there’s no accounting of why. Congress keeps skirting around the issue of price gouging. Why don’t we send the FBI in to crack the case.
One more time. If an oil company pays more for crude oil, they pass the price on to the pump. If the price at the pump is higher proportionaly to the cost of crude, it would appear everything is okay.
But, if the pump price is disproprtionally higher than the cost of crude, there is the possibility of enormous gouging.
Something is wrong in this equation.
The government should investigate.
Strike that.
The government should hire an outside investigator to investigate.
I believe you are right on the money, Larry. The oil magnates are the real “slick willies” of our time.
I keep noticing a pattern, every time there’s something in the news, gas prices spike. For example, if the price for a barrel goes up, prices go up. Seriously, does the barrel purchased at the higher price really get to your gas station the next day. Supply and demand is part of the problem, but not all of it. Maybe it’d help if Exxon didn’t give their CEOs 400 million dollar retirement packages. This video I found will definately make you want to go back in time. If those people only knew the problems we have now. http://cbs3.com/video/?id=29766@kyw.dayport.com
I agree to a point. I believe that the oil companies are taking advantage. I think that their tremendous profits show just how greedy they are. BUT, free market is just that, if we are willing to pay the price, then they can charge whatever they want. We need to be seriously looking for an alternative to using oil/gasoline for all of our energy needs. One of these days, the supplies are going to give out and if we are not careful, we will not be ready. But until that time, as long as the people do nothing to conserve or protest the high prices and just keep pouring $3.00/gallon gas into their cars, vans and trucks, the oil companies will keep charging what they want, when they want and enjoy the fruits of our pocketbooks.
I agree with the other comments on this. However,we all have our heads in the sand for the real reason that the prices are now dropping for gas. Did they drop like this last yar? I don’t recall such a dramatic drop. Why this year? I submit, Politics. Chaney gets on the phone, calls the over paid gas CEO Magnates and says, “Boys, do me a favor, drop the prices to give us an election boost. If Americans have no gas complaints, they are more likely to vote Republican and if we stay in power there will definitely be no excess profits tax for gouging. After the elections, you can raise them up high enough to re-gain those excess profits you lost for cooperating with us. Americans are fed a little right wing pablum to keep them from voting out the worst administration in American history.