Oil Speculation

Picture courtesy of NYC Insider

In the middle and lower class homes of many families is the up and coming battle of the winter heating budget. Raise your hands if you live in the north of the nation and still have not set the heat permanently on your single setting thermostat at 68 degrees? Raise your hands if the thickness of blankets on your bed is greater than the measurement of your waste line? Is your favorite phrase’s “We do not turn the heat on till after Thanks Giving” or “Put another sweater on“ ringing any bells?

Well bust my buttons if the cost of the lower class to heat the four walls is not the latest joke for those with funds to live high off the hog to enjoy. When people laugh at the suffering of their fellow man and yet gain from their sorrows from investments then they are over speculating in the market for the sake of dollars and in doing so have lost their own humanity. Stuffing a five dollar bill into the Salvation Army kettle does not absolve you from sin.

Granted that market speculation is needed in a free market but is the market actually free or running away without control. I tend to believe that the market is over speculating futures and that in turn is driving the price up without support. The bubble will only burst when the support for a continued struggle in the middle east involving American Military and Government support end. Till that time comes or a total regime change in Washington happens you had better put on yet another sweater and buckle down for a very expensive cold winter. Billions more can be squeezed out of the cold and poor economy of America, Bush is counting on it for his mega mansion Presidential Library. In Iraq they used to call them Presidential palaces but I digress to this piece in the New York Times…

Oil Price Up Again Ahead of Fed Meeting

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: October 29, 2007

Oil prices rose 1.8 percent today, adding to the 3.7 percent increase last week and raising the specter of inflation one day before the Federal Reserve governors meet to consider whether to adjust interest rates.

Crude oil futures rose above the $93 mark in overnight trading and were up to $93.53 a barrel at the close of exchange trading today, up $1.67 from Friday.

The price is a record in actual dollar terms and some analysts said the commodity is on a steady march toward toppling the inflation-adjusted high of $101.70 it set in April 1980.
“It’s an incredible run,” said Antoine Halff, head of energy research at Fimat in New York. “At this stage you’re kind of grappling for the signal that would start a reversal and it’s just not out there in the market.” - New York Times

A very good friend recently reminded me that all President’s take an oath on attaining the office to defend the Constitution. I’m wondering if the power brokers that be had had a higher goal to pledge allegiance too? Oil is not what our nation was built on. Far greater men have served in the office of President, I wonder if the next occupant will have the guts to chuck the bird at Wall Street and fight for the American people first over personal gain down the road. Yes I said PERSONAL GAIN! Check out Mr. Cheney’s net worth before being Vice President and now. No bid contracts have served him very well and he will not be worrying about the temperature setting in his house in Wyoming. Home is now a summer home for him and the Cheney family as long as the stock prices hold up.

Our nation was built on the principal that you could be anything they want to be. Pray and raise your children free from oppression. We raise our children to look for what is best in America and in many cases as a parent we walk them to the airplane or bus that will take them off to serve in our military. God bless them for serving but we need to look back at home once in a while instead of who bloodied who’s nose ten thousand miles from home.

Back to reality, my five girls are bunked down with blankets and comforters and whatever magical stuffed animals that helps them sleep. My thermostat is set at 65 because it is only October. Gas heat is following oil speculation, millions are being made off of that speculation in the markets and Hugo Chavez is waving his flag of cheap oil for northern states. Camelot is dead and it has been replaced by none other than a Wall Street broker calling out for higher prices while the child he passes on the street spent the night in a bed with the air temperature at just above freezing. This is only October.

What ever happened to being an American first over a capitalist? Watching the latest and greatest news does not bide well for the lower classes of America. Then again, heat is a relative thought if you have a home in the warmer climates and come back for the summers in the north. Isn’t that ironic.

Papamoka