Oil Prices: Market Manipulation & Lawmakers

THE DOCTOR IS IN ______________

LAS VEGAS- Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Gas prices are out of sight. Why? Price manipulation folks. In addition to price manipulation, - - greed. Even before the Mideast problems occurred gas prices here in the U.S. had been climbing at a steady rate. In fact, a few weeks ago an oil executive from a major oil company appeared on one of the many television talk shows and told the public that he wouldn't be surprised if gas prices climbed to $5.00 per gallon by April, this year. No rhyme, no reason. He just thought $5.00 a gallon of gas should be the price per gallon.

Then, the Mideast situation reared its ugly head. This gave these oil barons and the OPEC price fixing moguls cover and excuses. What did they say? They said oil prices are going up because Egypt "MIGHT" stop oil shipments through the Suez Canal" and Egypt "COULD" halt all oil shipments though the Suez Canal.

"MIGHT", "COULD" "POSSIBLY". These world leaders and the oil barons and OPEC raise prices on these words? What a rip off. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Instead of pulling a"Chicken Little" act the world leaders should wait until something did actually happen to disrupt any oil shipments.

When Egypt clearly stops oil from passing through the Suez Canal, then and only then, should world leaders like Obama scream that the "sky is falling." I submit that if there is an actual, true reason for the price increase then it should be communicated to the people: For example, Report on all news media sources- News item:" Egypt just stopped all oil shipments through the Suez Canal", that means oil prices will increase.

If the actual event did occur then people can understand why gas prices are increasing but on MAYBE or POSSIBLY or MIGHT and COULD? Come on folks, who are you kidding. People can speculate forever and a day but I say " actuality is reality." When something happens then report on the situation as to what will occur as the result of the event.

The oil companies have been manipulating oil prices for decades. As a side note I wrote my Congress people back in the 1990's complaining that oil companies were manipulating prices and the response was a form letter (with a stamp signature instead of a real signature) stating that prices were not being manipulated. However, a few years later and following a few Congressional hearing with the televised" dog and pony show" of our lawmakers throwing softball questions at the the oil executives many in Congress came to the conclusion that indeed, there was price manipulation by these oil idiots. Even thought they found manipulation of oil prices Congress did nothing to correct the matter.

After the oil companies were questioned by Congress oil prices did drop a few cents, but not for long. The oil companies established a new low base for the cost of a gallon of gas. For example, it was $2.00 a gallon back in the 1990's. By the time the hearing in Congress rolled around gas was pushing two-dollars-fifty cents ($2.50) a gallon. When the oil companies dropped the price a few pennies, they established a new low base . That didn't last long. The oil company then raised prices again. People began to grumble so oil executives drop the price by a few pennies again. Now another new low base for a gallon of gasoline. The oil companies keep raising gas prices by nickels and dimes by the day and when people across the country complain they drop the price by only a penny or two over a matter of weeks. They have kept this pattern up until gas was over $3.00 a gallon. They want the people to get used to $3.00 a gallon as a bargain.

However, the oil companies greed doesn't stop there The oil companies are trying to get the low base of gas up to $5.00 a gallon where us dopey drivers think that is a real deal. You can bet when a price of a gallon of gas does reach $5.00, they will continue their slight of hand to move to the $7.00 mark.

Beside the oil companies little games of raising a price per gallons by nickels and dimes a day and" only" dropping it a penny or two over weeks they play the excuse game: Excuses like- "summer is coming around and we have to raise prices because of demand" and, "winter is rolling around so the cost of oil has to go up because of the season." Then there is the old standby excuse of : "we have to shut down a refinery to retool" My theory is that the reason they really shut the refinery is because they want to cut supply so as to raise the price per gallon once again. Another excuse, "we have to raise prices on gasoline again because we had a rupture in one of our pipe lines". I could go on and on with other excuses these oil companies throw out just to rationalize an increase in gas prices, but I think we all know most of them.

The greedy oil moguls make "BILLIONS" of dollars per quarter and they still want more. These oil exes and lawmakers really think that the consumer public is stupid and the reason they do is because I believe most people don't complain or express their anger in peaceful and punitive revolt.

How long can we believe the oil companies and lawmakers when they tell us that we have to pay higher gasoline prices because of demand. If these idiot oil companies are making billions of dollars per quarter by selling gasoline at say ($2.00 per gallon) why do they have to raise the price to $3.00 plus a gallon because of the demand for the gasoline. The demand is there so they will continue to sell the gas. If the DEMAND "wasn't" there that would be a different story. However, the demand is there and the supply side is there so why increase the cost per gallon? . When there is a demand for the product and the oil companies are already making billions of dollars a quarter and they continue to drill all over the world and continue their supply, the only reason they would have to raise the price of a gallon of gas is PURE GREED.

Folks, people in Congress and a clique of rich political connected individuals have a "LEWINSKY"type relationship going on with these oil companies and OPEC. I believe corruption runs rampant in the halls of Congress and Washington when it come to holding the oil barons accountable. The old saying " Money talks and b.s. walks " are the words of the day in Washington when it comes to reining in gasoline prices.

Personally, I'm not opposed to the idea of the government nationalizing the oil companies here in the United States like they do in other countries. I would think that with government run oil companies the price of gasoline could be regulated at a fair and reasonable cost to the citizens of this country. There is no reason whatsoever for people in the United States to be paying more that $2.00 a gallon for gasoline.

To come full circle, I submit that the high prices that we in the U.S. have to pay for a gallon of gasoline is nothing more than market manipulation by the oil companies and possible collusion of our lawmakers and OPEC . GREED, GREED GREED. - And, that's my opinion. Make your own decisions. You decide.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com