Gas is gonna go through the roof.....

[HempKat]

China helpless? Where are you living? I've not seen China portrayed as helpless since the days of "No ticky, no washy" or the Calgon ads of the 70's with their "Ancient Chinese Secret" ad campaign.

China is so helpless it's going to make the US irrelevent if the US doesn't change it's ways and reclaim it's manufacturing base and it's number one status in technology and innovation.

 

[Mountain]

The US will never reclaim it's manufacturing base IMO. It could be the leader in technology and innovation but the general school system sucks. Saw a cool documentary Waiting for Superman about that. I mean the US 'imports' a lot of engineers cause not enough qualified US peeps.

As for China and oil/gas...they've been working on securing rights with many countries over the last few years. Unlike the US China develops healthy working relationships with countries whereas the US tendency seems to be just go take it...at least with Iraq. A friend travels the world constantly and he was in like Cambodia and Chinese construction crews helping build the country. Said he sees a Chinese presence in a lot of areas but the US is nowhere to be found.

 

[SpasticGramps]

What? You mean we have to work for shit around here? Get like educated and shit? Build stuff and shit? We're USA #1 forever! Give us your shit or we'll bomb back to the stoneages.

On a side note. When I transferred from a private Louisiana middle school in the 8th grade to the International Baccalaureate prep school in Singapore they initially thought I had a learning disability. No joke. They thought I was retarded. They had a good American school there (SAS), but my parents knew better. That's not to say a good education doesn't exist in the states, but LA use to rank last in education and the school I went to was terrible.

 

[igrowone]

The US will never reclaim it's manufacturing base IMO. It could be the leader in technology and innovation but the general school system sucks. Saw a cool documentary Waiting for Superman about that. I mean the US 'imports' a lot of engineers cause not enough qualified US peeps.

...

this is something i can speak to - 'lack' of engineers
foreign visa holding engineers can be terminated and put on a plane within a day(legally anyways)
effectively, they are technology slaves, who do you think a large USA company would prefer to hire?
look carefully at the sources of this 'shortage', peel back a layer or 2, and you will see some shills
now there may be a shortage developing because the quality of engineering jobs has been deteriorating for a while, but it's a self fulfilling prophecy

 

[dagnabit]

What? You mean we have to work for shit around here? Get like educated and shit? Build stuff and shit? We're USA #1 forever! Give us your shit or we'll bomb back to the stoneages.

On a side note. When I transferred from a private Louisiana middle school in the 8th grade to the International Baccalaureate prep school in Singapore they initially thought I had a learning disability. No joke. They thought I was retarded. They had a good American school there (SAS), but my parents knew better. That's not to say a good education doesn't exist in the states, but LA use to rank last in education and the school I went to was terrible.

in NOLA it's parochial school or garbage...

public school in LA is (was it's been a loooooong time) nothing more than a training ground for welfare rats and murderers.

 

[SpasticGramps]

In Opelousas you either went to the public school and gang banged or to the Catholic school. It's still that way. I pass by there every once in a while and the school building looks condemned, but they are still "teaching" there. I use that term very loosely.

My best friend is from NOLA and it's still like that. He went to Brother Martin.

 

[SpasticGramps]

I was wrong on the fleecing call about the margin hikes for oil. Crude is still going up. But it took 5 margin hike calls to really bring down silver so I'm guessing we'll see more of them if the price keeps going up.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

In Opelousas you either went to the public school and gang banged or to the Catholic school. It's still that way. I pass by there every once in a while and the school building looks condemned, but they are still "teaching" there. I use that term very loosely.

My best friend is from NOLA and it's still like that. He went to Brother Martin.

Yep, wouldn't be fun to teach when you also have to be surrogate parent, counselor, doctor, classroom enforcer, campus security, etc.

Remember the book "It Takes A Village? Some of these kids' "village" is gang life. This is more social failure than educational failure. Some of our kids not only don't learn, they disrupt the process for all.

Why is education in some developing countries better than the US? Because their schools aren't chock full of miscreants, they're full of kids wanting to learn.

It's tough to teach when society mandates an education yet does nothing about the distractions that teachers face on a daily basis. Sure, there are poor educators but we have examples of this in every occupation.

 

[igrowone]

there's another thread that is better 'themed' on the deteriorating situation in the USA
but i'll continue the thoughts here, the inner city education systems are shot because the culture is shot
i saw one news report snippet that summed it up well, the rule of law has been lost in some parts of this country(except for MJ, that is of course the ultimate evil)

 

[SpasticGramps]

Definitely a social failure. I don't blame the educators. They can only do what they can. I blame the entitlement (social and corporate) society we have created here. You can not learn anything and skate through life. Back in day and in third world countries where free markets actually exist if you don't learn you starve or live in total squalor. That's quite the incentive to want to better yourself.

We don't have that here anymore. When a State controls society this is what we end up with. Miscreants who don't want to learn. Why should they? They are no serious consequences for failure. There is just no incentive to learn anymore. Until incentive and consequences are restored nothing will change, just get worse.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Sorry about that. OT.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Oil Speculators: Manipulative Evil Masterminds or Just Savvy Investors?

By Bruce Watson Posted 4:00PM 05/10/11

(Daily Finance) As the price of oil climbed over the past few months, a growing army of commentators and pundits grimly hinted about "speculators" who were manipulating the oil market and profiting from the misery of the American people. In the darkest depictions, these speculators were alleged to be aligned in a vast, global cabal bent on squeezing money out of the U.S. middle class by driving up the price of crude.

These rumblings about speculators are hardly surprising: They echo the groundswell that emerged three years ago, the last time that gas prices exploded. For that matter, there's no doubt that oil speculators exist: Oil futures are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), as well as on London's Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and through direct sales. But do those speculators wield the diabolical, nearly omnipotent power over the market that some critics claim, or are they -- like the drivers who are now paying close to $4 a gallon for gasoline -- merely riding pre-existing trends?

Supply and Demand vs. Speculation

In all likelihood, the answer is a bit of both. The traditional explanation for gas prices is that they move based on supply and demand: Put simply, there is a limited supply of petroleum available on world markets at any given time, and as a rapidly growing number of people in emerging economies like China and India buy cars and become drivers, Americans must compete for fuel in an ever-more-crowded marketplace.

With more drivers clamoring for a share of that limited supply of gas, oil companies, refineries and gas stations can charge more, and the price goes up. But rising prices may lead drivers to cut back on their gas consumption, which increases the available supply and pushes the price back down.

According to speculation theorists, this supply-and-demand equation is being short-circuited by commodities traders, who push the price of gas up in order to reap a quick profit. These traders buy oil futures at low prices using mostly borrowed money, encourage the price to rise, then sell the futures at the new, higher price and collect the difference. Meanwhile, when oil producers see the market rising, they try to hold on to their crude so that they, too, can sell it at an inflated price -- which reduces supply further. Between the traders and the producers, oil prices shoot up, torturing drivers.

The Disappearance of Oversight

Up until a few years ago, oil speculation wasn't really a problem: Crude oil futures could only be bought and sold on the NYMEX, where they were regulated by the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC), a government organization that was created in 1974 to -- you guessed it -- protect the market against speculators. For decades, the CFTC did its job well, watching over sales of oil futures and ensuring that investors didn't drive up prices to make a profit at the expense of consumers. But in 2000, everything changed.


That year, two events effectively crippled the CFTC. The first was the passage of a provision of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act -- sometimes called the Enron loophole -- that made it legal for companies to trade oil futures outside of the NYMEX in what are called over-the-counter (OTC) trades. The same year, the London-based Intercontinental Exchange made it possible for investors to buy and sell European oil futures, and offered a platform for OTC trading. In addition to driving up the global price of oil, futures trading on the ICE began to have a direct impact on U.S. gas prices in 2006, when the ICE gained the right to list U.S. oil futures. Since the CFTC could only regulate trades on the NYMEX, those events made it possible for speculators to escape oversight.

While it's difficult to prove whether or not speculators are directly responsible for high gas prices, most analysts agree that some portion of the current high cost of gas is attributable to the buying and selling of oil futures. After the sharp rise and steep fall oil prices took in 2007 and 2008, investigators found that 81% of gas contracts on the NYMEX had been held by speculators. In fact, 11% were held by a single company, Vitol. With that kind of pull, anti-speculation analysts argue, there's no question that oil traders can manipulate oil prices.

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us

But are gas speculators really the diabolical masterminds that some analysts have made them out to be? Fred Rozell, director of retail pricing for the Oil Price Information Service argues that these investors aren't malicious.

"Oil is a good bet for investors who are looking to reap a solid return on investment," he says. "This is especially true in the current economic climate, as a slowly improving economy points to increased consumption and tensions in the Middle East are fueling fears of a supply disruption." In fact, Rozell notes, many of these oil speculators are 401(k) plans that benefit middle-class consumers.

Beyond that, there's always a seasonal increase in the price of fuel. In the spring, gas companies switch over from their winter-grade fuel to their summer-grade. The summer mix contains different additives that, according to the EPA, cut down on pollution. To make the summer-grade fuel, refineries have to briefly shut down, a move that causes the price of gasoline to shoot up. Rozell calls this seasonal increase the "petronoia rally," as the brief gas shortage fuels paranoia among consumers and investors. He notes that gas prices usually peak in early May, then slowly decline.

What Can Be Done?

With high gas prices threatening America's fragile economic recovery, many people are asking what can be done to curb speculation. Last month, the Department of Justice launched the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which is tasked with fighting illegal oil speculation. While this might help somewhat, the sad fact is that most oil speculation occurs legally on the NYMEX, the ICE and in OTC trades. Ultimately, the solution is to increase the power of the CFTC.

Last year's Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was designed to do just that: Among other things, it gave the CFTC the power to regulate OTC trades. However, conservative opponents of the law have fought against its implementation: U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Michele Bachman (R-Minn.) introduced legislation to repeal the law, and Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) recently proposed H.R. 1573, which would delay its implementation until 2013.

If the Dodd-Frank Act's provisions go into effect, they could go a long way toward stabilizing gas prices, which would be a major boon for consumers. If not ... well, public transportation is looking more and more attractive.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/05...ipulative-evil-masterminds-or-just-savvy-inv/

 

[dagnabit]

LMAO!!!!
Just got a 5.7 L hemi jeep comander..

 

[longearedfriend]

the price of gas is saddening

 

[BornToBeWild]

It is saddening man! People who have to drive a ways to work are getting screwed.

 

[joeuser]

The US will never reclaim it's manufacturing base IMO. It could be the leader in technology and innovation but the general school system sucks. Saw a cool documentary Waiting for Superman about that. I mean the US 'imports' a lot of engineers cause not enough qualified US peeps.

Yep, wouldn't be fun to teach when you also have to be surrogate parent, counselor, doctor, classroom enforcer, campus security, etc.

Remember the book "It Takes A Village? Some of these kids' "village" is gang life. This is more social failure than educational failure. Some of our kids not only don't learn, they disrupt the process for all.

Why is education in some developing countries better than the US? Because their schools aren't chock full of miscreants, they're full of kids wanting to learn.

It's tough to teach when society mandates an education yet does nothing about the distractions that teachers face on a daily basis. Sure, there are poor educators but we have examples of this in every occupation.

Why do we ALWAYS go round and round about this? It's NOT the schools...it's the kids! Some just aren't as smart as others. It's a race thing and if you opened your eyes...you'd see it. When a society decides that EVERY child will be judged to the same standard...the standard goes down. It's the same as when women HAD to qualify for every job...the standards went down.

You want the US to compete again? Stop affirmative action, stop quotas, MAKE people COMPETE... We've shot ourselves in the foot trying to make everyone "equal". We're not all equal...not by a long shot.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Here are the speculators. One trading loss day between them. That's quite an amazing feat. I guess not so much when you have absolute control of the market and are fleecing the general public. IMO, Dodd-Frank further institutionalizes the big banks monopoly control and too big too fail. The only solution is they should have been put out of business in '08 and the executives put in jail. But since all of Washington are pawns for the banks they go on to acquire more power at the expense of the people.

One Trading Loss Day In Q1 Between Goldman, JPMorgan And Bank Of America Combined

Zero Sum trading (in which the banks make money and taxpayers lose it) continues: following previous reports of trading perfection at both D-grade trading "powerhouse" Bank of Countrywide Lynch, and FRBNY-lite JP Morgan, Goldman craps the bad by being the only big bank so far to post a trading loss day in Q1 (even if it was for $0-25 million). This is unacceptable. As a result SLP latencies will be cut from 0 nanoseconds to -10, as Goldman will proceed to a Tachyon based trading infrastructure. In beta tests, such "frontrunning to the future" trading has already posted solid results: in addition to the humiliating trading day loss, GS had 32 days with profits of ">$100 million." And it still failed to impress... Now that HFT "girl around the block" Citi is no longer there for the taking by anyone with a growing liquidity rebate itch, this number will plunge.

Elsewhere, one wonders what caused the surge in daily trading VaR in the last days of March. Or perhaps at least someone appears to have made money on the Japan catastrophe.

 

[smokefrogg]

i have been so much more stress free since i've been riding the bicycle to work

getting the blood pumping so much in the morning, man i get in the office and just bang stuff out left and right

i look forward to the commute there and back, it's just fun, i've been losing a little bit of weight, i have more money in my checking account

here's a picture i took the other day on my way home from work:

 

[SpasticGramps]

More attempts at price controls. This should funnel just about everyone into stocks. They had to halt trading on oil and gas futures because they were crashing so bad. Very rare to see that done to commodities.

Commodity Flash Crash Part Two As Senators Demand Immediate Position Limits In Crude

Today is shaping up to be an identical replica of the action from last Thursday as seen on the chart below. That's two flash crashes in less than a week. Whether this is driven by another margin hike known only to the CME and its closest, or due to news from Reuters that 17 senators have written to the CFTC to immediately crack down on excessive speculation in crude oil, is unclear, and largely irrelevant. The outright campaign to stomp out any non-stock trading is in full force. The message is clear: the only place where investors can henceforth put their money in is in stocks.

And from Reuters on the latest attempt to push all commodities to zero, via Reuters

A group of 17 U.S. senators called on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Wednesday to immediately crack down on excessive speculation in crude oil markets by hastening planned rules to limit concentration.

In a letter to the CFTC's chairman and commissioners, the lawmakers said they wanted the agency to unveil a plan by May 23 to impose position limits in all energy futures markets, beginning with crude oil. The agency has already proposed such limits as part of the financial reform, but has not finalized them.

The senators said the recent drop in crude oil prices, which fell nearly $10 a barrel in one day last week, defy supply and demand conditions. Oil prices bounced back almost $6 a barrel on Monday, but then fell more than $5 on Wednesday. Gasoline prices slumped by more than 8 percent.

"The wild fluctuation could only be the result of rampant oil speculation, plain and simple," said Senator Ron Wyden, one of the lawmakers who wrote to the CFTC demanding action, in some of the strongest language attacking speculators since oil prices surged to a record $147 a barrel in 2008.

"The CFTC needs a plan to impose position limits on oil speculation before oil speculators drive up prices even higher just as Americans go to the pumps to fill up for Memorial Day weekend," he said.

The CFTC is weighing new rules that would slap limits on the positions of big commodity traders, capping how many futures and swaps contracts any one company can control.

The Dodd-Frank law passed last July gives the agency the power to set position limits to curb excessive speculation in 28 commodities, including energy, metals and agricultural markets, "as appropriate."

But some of the agency's own commissioners are skeptical the limits would prevent a run-up in prices, and experts and traders have long said the rules risk making markets more volatile by reducing liquidity.

Anyone knows what happens when governments try to institute price controls on commodities? I'm going to dub this the Neo-Keyensian Washington DC hokey pokey hubris scramble to try and save their own asses.

 

[HUGE]

Here are the speculators. One trading loss day between them. That's quite an amazing feat. I guess not so much when you have absolute control of the market and are fleecing the general public. IMO, Dodd-Frank further institutionalizes the big banks monopoly control and too big too fail. The only solution is they should have been put out of business in '08 and the executives put in jail. But since all of Washington are pawns for the banks they go on to acquire more power at the expense of the people.

One Trading Loss Day In Q1 Between Goldman, JPMorgan And Bank Of America Combined

I believe this is called high frequency trading. Heard about it a few years ago and it pretty much assured to me that we were doomed. Ok here is the plan we make some software that handles billions of transactions a second and take the little remainders and put them in a bank account. Ooh wait that was the plot in office space. Ooh wait that's high frequency trading. Ooh fuck everyone seems to think this is ok? Ooh fuck we are doomed.

Why won't it read!!!!!!