"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
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"dave" wrote in message
. ..

"gatt" wrote in message Guys who bring
this up on or.politics are usually called socialists,
communists, or America-hating lieberals, and the advice they're given is
to invest in XOM. To me, that's tantamount to investing in organized
crime. At some point we're either going to force them to put the
national interest over record oil prices, or pull a Chavez and
nationalize it. I'm not being a big-government socialist when I say that
the federal bureaucracy could run the oil industry at lower user cost.
(Not necessarily more efficiently, but in ways that are less damaging to
the US economy, transportation industries, etc.)


If the market was truly working, then the oil companies would be
increasing capacity
before any predicted shortage due to summer/winter blends or recurirng
spikes in demand.

They've been begging to do that for 30 years, but a certain group is very
good at intimidating the regulators (and many are EPA regulators
themselves.

This way they would try to to get a competitive advantge over one
another, and have more gas on hand to sell at the higher price.
Eventually the recurring, predictable shortage would go away.

The problem is collusion and cartels. This is illegal, and not the way a
free market is supposed to work.

Like OPEC?

Get a freaking clue and can the high-school level conspiracy drivel.

So the US gas production is running flat out 24/7 at 100% capacity? They
can't produce 1 drop more?

A predictable, recurring shortage, such as due to switching processes every
season, should not persist year after year. One company should ask, "why not
start our summer production a month early so we can sell more at the higher
summer price while our competitiors are doing their change over". That
ladder climbing exec gets a promotion and a big fat bonus. Eventually others
catch on and try to undercut each other, until the benefit is marginal. But
this does'nt happen. I'm just asking why.