Continuing Enron type Oil scam threatens dog sports participation - Page 1

Today, C-span televised US Senate Hearings on the high petroleum and related fuel prices at the pump.  Independent experts testified.  It was pointed out that Enron type speculating and derivative type multiplicitous distribution networks were driving the average price of a gallon of gas in the US from a current real market value of approx $2.20 to over $4 per gallon. 

It was testified to by multiple experts that historically oil was passed from the producer to the refiner to the customer with usually two and no more than three middle men (distributors). What has now occurred as it did with Enron is a flight of US capital to commodities of all sorts and a newly arising complex commodities/derivative structure which has many different pension funds and gov't and foundation funds investing in these futures and thereby rapidly inflating the pricing way out of reason (most other investment yield nothing so capityal is moving quickly into these entities).  

One result  is that crude oil now has on the average (on the average) over 100 transactions from well to retailer, inflating the price per gallon most likely in excess of at least 50% of its actual cost (even with a good 8% profit for the refiners). 

And it was testified to that this same pattern of fiancial ponzi that previously occurred with Enron is now occurring with oil and will also occur with all farm commodities and all food.  Unless govt moves quickly this deregulation of the wall street banks will allow these Enron type speculative bubbles to surely destroy the financial health of the USA forever.

It was testified to that the main parties gaining indecent profits from this were the largest wall street int'l banks just like in the Enron scandal (surprise, surprise folks).  And the worst thing that came out during the hearing was that this was all a result of the fed gov't deregulating the oil business, energy and commodities.  It was also testified that this could easily be corrected and it was shown how with simple adherence to regulations that are not being enforced and govt could quickly end these Enron type scams that are quickly destroying our country economically.

Now is the time to email your Senators and Congresspersons and tell them to re-regulate oil before it is to late and end this enron type fraud.

Senators    http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Congress   http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

 Hello Preston,

Back a few years ago, I took a couple of economics courses in college.  One of the primary rules of economics states when you restrict the supply of a necessary good, the price of that good goes up.  As you accurately posted, speculation is driving the price of oil up far more than is logical.  This is able to happen, because traders are betting on future shortages of an essential good.  Coupled with the current weakness of our dollar, the desire of financial institutions and individual traders to put their assets in a safe investment (oil), and we are seeing prices continue to rise beyond what makes any sense economically.

The politicians who now control our legislative branch (Congress and our Senate, for our foreign friends) are restricting the access to oil reserves in the continental U.S. and in its waters.  They're doing this in a large part to curry favor with their political base, which includes the environmental activists who, in no circumstances, would agree to further drilling or exploration.  The politicians are actively sacrificing working people, particularly independent truck drivers, our elderly, who are on fixed incomes, low income single mothers, and young people just starting out, for political gain.

While I am in favor of protecting our environment, such protection can and must be balanced with the welfare of the people uppermost in mind.  Our politicians must be held accountable to everyone, not just to fringe elements.

Best regards,

Micky

SSDD,

The fix is in from the top and all the way down to the local level,  you know how to change that?

Drill here drill there, its still gonna run out.   Then what?   

Try thinking outside the orb for a change. 

Threatening dog sports?  Hell its threatening our lives and our childrens futures.

SSDD

If gas prices go as high this year and experts are guessing the US will tank. Thanks, red states.

Economic depression in America: Evidence of a withering economy is everywhere

Mike Whitney
Global Research
June 3, 2008

Look around. The evidence of a withering economy is everywhere. In "good times" consumers shun the canned meat aisle altogether, but no more.  Today, Spam sales are Soaring; grocery stores can’t keep it on the shelves. Everyone is looking for cheaper ways to feed their families. The Labor Dept. assures us that core-inflation is only 4%, but everybody knows it’s load of malarkey. Food prices are going through the roof. White bread is up 13%,  bacon is up 7% and peanut butter is up 9%.  Inflation is rampant and there’s no end in sight. The dollar is closing in on the peso and working people are struggling just to get by. The bottom line is that more and more people in "the richest country on earth" are now surviving on processed pig-meat. That says it all.

In Santa Barbara parking lots are being converted into hostels so that families that lost their homes in the subprime fiasco can sleep in their cars and not be hassled by the cops. The same is true in LA where tent cities have sprung up around the railroad yards to accommodate the growing number of people who’ve lost their jobs or can’t afford to rent a room on service-industry wages. It’s tragic. Everywhere people are feeling the pinch; that’s why 9 out of 10 Americans now believe the country is now headed in the wrong direction and that’s why consumer confidence is at its lowest ebb since the Great Depression. This is the great triumph of Reagan’s free trade "trickle down" Voodoo economics; whole families living out of their cars waiting for the pawn shop to open.

The economy is on life-support. The rest of the world would be doing us all a favor if they decided to chuck the dollar and boycott US financial products altogether. That would put an end to Wall Street’s chicanery once and for all. Foreign investors should be demanding restitution and impounding American assets to compensate for the trillions of dollars they lost in the subprime/securitization swindle. Litigate, litigate, litigate; that’s the only way to make the guilty parties pay for their crimes. Either that or set up a gallows on Wall Street and get down to business.

The pundits on the business channel are telling us that the "worst is over"; that the Force 5 hurricane in the financial markets has weakened to a squall. Don’t believe it. The corporate bond market is still frozen, housing is in free fall, and the banking system is buckling from the overload of bad investments. The FDIC is even trying to lure former employees out of retirement to deal with the tsunami of bank failures set to touch down later in 2008. Corporate defaults are on the rise and and commercial real estate is crashing.

"Commercial property prices in the US in February saw their sharpest decline since records began nearly 15 years ago as sources of finance for deals has dried up, according to data from Standard & Poor’s out yesterday. Sales of commercial properties were down 71 per cent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier." (Financial Times) Commercial real estate is following the same downward trajectory as residential housing. They’re both headed for the bottom of the fish-tank. Any slump in CRE will send unemployment skyrocketing while adding to the solvency problems facing the banks.

We’re not out of the woods by a long shot, and won’t be f

"Drill here drill there, its still gonna run out.   Then what?   

Try thinking outside the orb for a change." 

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38645

"About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana lies a mostly submerged mountain, the top of which is known as Eugene Island. The portion underwater is an eerie-looking, sloping tower jutting up from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, with deep fissures and perpendicular faults which spontaneously spew natural gas. A significant reservoir of crude oil was discovered nearby in the late '60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330 was busily producing about 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil.

By the late '80s, the platform's production had slipped to less than 4,000 barrels per day, and was considered pumped out. Done. Suddenly, in 1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves which had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the '70s, were recalculated at 400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological age of the new oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the '70s."

You can read the rest of the article at the link.

Pet owners fear tough economic choices

FRANKLIN, Massachusetts (AP) -- Diana Bardsley wiped tears from her eyes as she recalled taking food off her plate to feed her beloved spaniel Hunter and 2 Siamese cats. Her greatest fear: that she could be forced to surrender the animals as she struggled to stretch her food stamps and Social Security income to meet the escalating cost of living.

Some hope was restored after she visited a local food pantry, which has started offering free pet food to help owners keep their animals out of shelters.  "I know a lot of people will probably say, 'Well, if you don't have enough money to be able to feed your animals, that you shouldn't have pets,"' said Bardsley, 53, of Franklin, as Hunter played in the living room with three of her grandchildren.

But, "Just because financially you may go downhill a little or a lot, doesn't necessarily mean you have give the part of your family that you love," she said. For some pet owners, though, there is little choice.

The rising costs of fuel, food and housing -- and the rising tide of foreclosures -- have generated a surge in requests for pet food from traditional food pantries and prompted some pet owners to give up their animals. Others are trying to save money by forgoing veterinary care.

The Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, Illinois, has seen the average number of pet owners getting monthly rations from its pet food pantry increase by more than 50 percent since last year. Meanwhile, the number of people seeking service at its discounted veterinary clinic has more than doubled, said Linda Estrada, the group's director and president. "We could do it every day if we had enough food, I mean, that's how bad it's gotten," Estrada said. "The line goes all the way down the street" as pet owners gather once a month for supplies.

In Santa Cruz, California, a pet food bank run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has seen demand spike by about 20 percent just in the past six months. The facility typically hands out about 5,000 pounds of free pet food a month.  "In the past, the demographics has been people who are disabled or on disability and senior citizens," said executive director Lisa Carter. "Nowadays, during the pet food program, I see people who are able-bodied and not able to find a job."  

The deepening foreclosure crisis also is having an effect. A growing number of pet owners are abandoning their pets or surrendering them to shelters after losing their homes or being forced into housing that doesn't allow animals, said Brian Adams, spokesman for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center.

"We've seen where people have abandoned dogs in the house, we've seen dogs that have been surviving for weeks on toilet water, we've seen dogs that have either been chained up outside or left in the yard when the people have left, we've seen cats who are just set free," Adams said.

"We've seen people do something sort of in the middle of the road -- where they don't abandon it, they don't surrender it, but they give it to a neighbor or friend and then that person brings it in maybe a week or two later when they realize, you know, it was something that was sort of dumped on them when they weren't really ready for it yet," he said.

Petco Foundation, the charity arm of Petco Animal Supplies Inc., is establishing a program to provide up to $5,000 in grants to shelters to train, care for or find new homes for pets abandoned during the foreclosure crisis, said director Paul Jolly. The program will also benefit shelters that help pet owners find homes that allow pets or supply food to disadvantaged homeowners who want to

Preston-

So many of these regulations (especially on mortgage trading) were put in after the Great Depression to keep that kind of thing from ever happening again. Reagan and especially Bush tore out all those protections, and here we are again.
 
I heard the analysts on CNN saying that speculation wouldn't account for more than about 70 cents of the price of gas. I'm not surprised that they got it wrong. All the money people want to downplay these effects and hope things will get better by themselves. Ostriches.
 
You would have thought we'd have learned from Enron...

I can discuss with a fair amount of intelligence threads regarding dogs, disease, etc., but, I am angry to the point of speechlessness ( *@ &*$!%%*!***#@*!!!) at what our government has done to our economy. We older farts don't have another 20-30-years to putz around waiting for them to straighten this mess out again! We're losing everything we've worked our lives away for, and forget about retirement! My dream was to retire from nursing to raise GSDs, maybe have a horse and a garden...now I'll be slaving my ass away at age 80, if I live that long, and probably at a McJob, as hospitals & nursing homes deliberately understaff to keep profit margins up, making it difficult for older, more experienced nurses to function.....sad for patients....; I'll keep my dogs, tho' -I'll need them, damn it! If I'm living in my car, I'll need some kind of protection from marauders! And if I die & they gnaw my bones, I'll consider it a noble epitaph! Phew- there goes my blood pressure again! jackie harris