Everything Obama does is political, Why release Oil reserves now?

[Jarhead]

Conservatives do use fear as their favorte tool to manipulate their followers.

Funny...I seem to recall it being Obama and his people telling us about the worst economy since the great depression...on the brink...and all of that stuff.

Guess he forgot about the 20%+ prime rates, 10+ unemployment rates and gas shortages of the Carter Years.

 

[JRK]

You know I could not remember when GWB opened up the reserves
Katrina
You know all I did was ask a question and made a comment
not one liberal has responded to it except to state there glad the "speculator" got hurt
what ever that is
I am glad that the liberal is happy when another person gets hurt

When they can invest in Exxon as good as I can
any way they run to blame GWB got de railed in a hurry

What is Obama thinking?
How many billions of dollars was lost in the stock market yesterday?

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Oil prices were declining on their own. What better way to take credit for it than to look involved? Funny he did nothing until after he started campaigning.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Can any of you liberals explain to me why release oil now? what is that going to do to create jobs?
it is a band aid at best.
Gas has went down every week now for many weeks

Its like blaming the 14 trillion dollar deficit on Afghanistan, when we know the failed stimulus and his 1/2 of tarp cost more than both wars
To start with we did not start either of those wars

Its the price of being free Obama

It's already backfired. Oil and gas prices are rebounding from yesterday's losses.
If Obama really wanted to give the American people a break on these high prices, he'd lift the off shore drilling ban. That would send prices downward.
Just read a story on CNBC that oil refineries are operating well below capacity.
Inventories are at historic highs due to slow demand. Yet prices stay high due to jittery markets.
News Headlines.
Obama is in full campaign mode and is trying to recover his base.
This move is a purely political move on his part.
It won't work.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

You know I could not remember when GWB opened up the reserves
Katrina
You know all I did was ask a question and made a comment
not one liberal has responded to it except to state there glad the "speculator" got hurt
what ever that is
I am glad that the liberal is happy when another person gets hurt

When they can invest in Exxon as good as I can
any way they run to blame GWB got de railed in a hurry

What is Obama thinking?
How many billions of dollars was lost in the stock market yesterday?

Oil speculators deserve any hit they get. But I guarantee you that's not why he did what he did.
Obama doesn't understand that every dumb move he makes seems to have a greater negative effect than any positive he envisioned.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Republicans didn't want to do anything about speculators..and they were complaining about rising gas prices.

This is a big fuck you..to that.

Bully!

speculation has little to do with anything. If it were, prices would have kept rising due to the absennce of 1.5 million barrels per day normally produced by Libya.
Also, we're at the cusp of the summer driving season and refineries are producing the boutique fuel blends.
Prices however, have been in a slow decline for about a month now.
Contrary to the beliefs of the uninformed, speculation does not translate to solely the upward bidding of commodities. Traders also speculate on downward pricing as well.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Your so right.

Gas prices were on the way down so why release the reserve oil now??

You can bet any bang from that release won't last long. What happens then??

Ol'BO's policies haven't done jack for the economy and he knows it. IMHO its all just politics.

Well, it did do one thing.
It reduced the supply available in America's emergency oil reserves.
At a time when doing so didn't really generate any real revenue and there was no shortage
of oil on the world market. So what happens when the Arabs turn off the spigots ?
We have less on hand and it's going to hurt our economy even more just that much faster.

jmho

First..OPEC does not "jack up prices". The cartel has no direct control over commodities exchanges.
The OPEC nations learned a hard lesson thast last time prices spun out of control. Once prices reached their peak of $147 per barrel, they collapsed to about $30 in 6 months. That left OPEC nations with a lot of very exepnsive oil on their hands that they intended to sell at a much higher price but could not.
The release of 60 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is about 2.5 days of typical US demand. It's nothing.
The SPO is over 600 million barrels of oil.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Republicans didn't want to do anything about speculators..and they were complaining about rising gas prices.

This is a big fuck you..to that.

Bully!

speculation has little to do with anything. If it were, prices would have kept rising due to the absennce of 1.5 million barrels per day normally produced by Libya.
Also, we're at the cusp of the summer driving season and refineries are producing the boutique fuel blends.
Prices however, have been in a slow decline for about a month now.
Contrary to the beliefs of the uninformed, speculation does not translate to solely the upward bidding of commodities. Traders also speculate on downward pricing as well.

What do you expect from a bunch who get their info from the state run media?

 

[Ame®icano]

Follow the money...

So, where money from that sale ended up?

 

[Wiseacre]

This is the only stimulus option Obama has left. It's possible Bernanke might do a QE3 later, but this is a hail mary attempt to spur the economy going into the summer vacation time. It's pure politics, just like the drawdown in Afghanistan is next Sept, when it should've been after the next fighting is over inthe spring of 2013. I see it as a temporary ploy that will change nothing a month from now, although it might get Obama a little more campaign money in the meantime.

 

[thereisnospoon]

That's fine..and to be expected.

But when you have one side that is complaining about an issue (Gas prices) and then blocking any means to address that..how exactly would you suggest this be dealt with?

Forget the "government has nothing to do with private industry" crapola..because it does. We are constantly going to wars to protect "our interests" in the middle east (Which are always oil) and cutting the energy industry lots of slack in the form of grants, tax cuts and contracts. That seems to be a one sided love affair.

What has the GOP done to "block any means" to address high gas prices?

Um..

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXJR7eZ_jQ]YouTube - ‪Cantor Promises Oil Speculators That GOP Will Block Financial Regulations‬‏[/ame]

Sally.....Let us suppose for a moment we go to a system where comodities speculation on energy is banned.
That means a new market must be created. There must be a meeting of the minds fior the purpose of setting a fair price.
Who gets to do that? What is a fair price?
This on the surface may seem like a better solution. No crazy price spikes. No one making a living off the siuffering of motorists. But wait a minute......Let's also imagine a major oil supply inmteruption. Such as what we saw with Katrina. Now the price stays the same but production costs will rise dramatically. Given that the oil producing companies are business to turn a profit, they cannot afford to produce refined products at a set price when their costs have risen. So when costs rise and prices are set, the only thing left ot do is to ration supply. A business is not going to sell it's product at a loss if it that business is restricted on price point. The business will simply hold product from the marketplace or reduce or even stop production. Either way with set prices there will always be the potential for rationing.
Now, one could state that the government could put into place regulations that require oil companies to keep a minimum supply in the chain. To what end? Eventually as the situation worsens, the oil companies would have to shut dpwn production because of the high cost.
The only way price fixing could work is if the federal government went into the oil production/ refining buisness independent of the private sector.

 

[JRK]

This is the only stimulus option Obama has left. It's possible Bernanke might do a QE3 later, but this is a hail mary attempt to spur the economy going into the summer vacation time. It's pure politics, just like the drawdown in Afghanistan is next Sept, when it should've been after the next fighting is over inthe spring of 2013. I see it as a temporary ploy that will change nothing a month from now, although it might get Obama a little more campaign money in the meantime.

home run

 

[JRK]

When the liberals had a super majority in the house and the senate, why didnt we get this reform then that the GOP is suppose to be blocking?

Can someone tell me what a speculator is?

I day trade stocks, does this mean I am a speculator?

what an embarrassing event to proclaim people making a profit is a bad thing and that there are those so powerful they can run toil prices up and there the only ones who could profit from it if they did

 

[The Rabbi]

What has the GOP done to "block any means" to address high gas prices?

Um..

Sally.....Let us suppose for a moment we go to a system where comodities speculation on energy is banned.
That means a new market must be created. There must be a meeting of the minds fior the purpose of setting a fair price.
Who gets to do that? What is a fair price?
This on the surface may seem like a better solution. No crazy price spikes. No one making a living off the siuffering of motorists. But wait a minute......Let's also imagine a major oil supply inmteruption. Such as what we saw with Katrina. Now the price stays the same but production costs will rise dramatically. Given that the oil producing companies are business to turn a profit, they cannot afford to produce refined products at a set price when their costs have risen. So when costs rise and prices are set, the only thing left ot do is to ration supply. A business is not going to sell it's product at a loss if it that business is restricted on price point. The business will simply hold product from the marketplace or reduce or even stop production. Either way with set prices there will always be the potential for rationing.
Now, one could state that the government could put into place regulations that require oil companies to keep a minimum supply in the chain. To what end? Eventually as the situation worsens, the oil companies would have to shut dpwn production because of the high cost.
The only way price fixing could work is if the federal government went into the oil production/ refining buisness independent of the private sector.

Great post explaining what commodities markets are for. But you miss the point.
The point in the Left's mind is that no one can do better than someone else. That is UNFAIR. Now, if everyone ends up much worse off, that's OK. Because no one is doing better.
That is the principle behind Obamacare. No one gets "gold plated health plans". Everyone gets the same shitty 3rd world rationed health care.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Sallow, I'm in the business and the whole story of subsidies isn't "exactly" like the media makes it out
to be. What are being called subsidies are the exact same tax laws that apply to any other industry.

But, I'm always happy to see speculators take a hit.
Maybe it'll give them a shot of humility.

I do have some concerns over unexpected consequences to depleting our national reserves.
But, what's done is done. Like I said, whether this was good, bad, or simply indifferent in the long
run is one of those things we've just got to wait and see about.

Well on this side..I've been working in IT for financial firms for 15 years. Not quite the 30 years you put in..but I think it gives me a little credibility in this regard.

And like I pointed out..it's a fluid situation. But you're not off base with this post. Lots of things can happen.

do you really think commodities traders lost money yesterday?
I am willing to wager a good amount of money that the moment the SPR release was announced, traders were buying shorts or "puts" like crazy.
Look, most oil trades are held for less than a few hours. Some are held for minutes.
There could be a trader who buys 5,000 July 2012 $95 calls and then as soon as the price hits $95, sells them. There are traders who exclusively short the market.
And every trader has stop loss orders.
People have been told ot hold the term "speculation" in a negative light. This goes back to middle school history class when students cover the causes of the Great Depression.
Cannot tell you how many times the words "wild specualtion" were used.
Fast forward to today. Some hear "speculation" and they immediately think "evil".
In reality, traders speculate prices downwards as well as upwards.
I think what really gets people in a tizzy is when there are wild price spikes.
That's hard for most people to comprehend so they seek comfort in affixing blame to someone.
Look, I hate when some fucking towel headed shit head says he's going to attack Israel and the price of gas goes up 20 cents in a week.

 

[thereisnospoon]

You Obama detractors are a) insane b) laugh-worthy and c) predictable.

You scream at him...he complies...you scream at him again.

I wish the man had some balls and would just stop compromising with conservatives who wont meet him half way.

Oh yes...Leave him alone.. He's doing the best he can....
Umm we don't pay the president to do his best. We pay him to govern. Obama is not governing. He's campaigning.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Republicans didn't want to do anything about speculators..and they were complaining about rising gas prices.

This is a big fuck you..to that.

Bully!

yeah, but he's not allowed to do anything according to the rightwingnut loons. he's supposed to let them spew endlessly without response.

it's like dealing with palestinian terrorists.

So conservatives are terrorists, "counselor"?

I see jillian's betty boop avatar and I just cannot take her seriously enough to respond to her inane and vapid posts.
She's like the kid at the family gathering who walks by the adult's table, hears the conversation ands feels compelled to blurt out something in an attempt to get attention.

 

[FuelRod]

30 million barrels is literally 36 hours worth of oil, barely a squirt of piss. If it freaks the speculators into driving down the price more power to him.

 

[thereisnospoon]

30 million barrels is literally 36 hours worth of oil, barely a squirt of piss. If it freaks the speculators into driving down the price more power to him.

It was a price dip. Oil prices are recovering today.
Well just checked. Oil is off 54 cents per barrel. Gas is down 6 cents to $2.77.
So it's been an up and down day.
Prices have been in a slow decline for about 5 weeks now.
The order to release oil from the SPR has little to do with the market price.

 

[The Rabbi]

yeah, but he's not allowed to do anything according to the rightwingnut loons. he's supposed to let them spew endlessly without response.

it's like dealing with palestinian terrorists.

So conservatives are terrorists, "counselor"?

I see jillian's betty boop avatar and I just cannot take her seriously enough to respond to her inane and vapid posts.
She's like the kid at the family gathering who walks by the adult's table, hears the conversation ands feels compelled to blurt out something in an attempt to get attention.

Nailed it.