Opinion/Editorial
Views with Interesting Perspectives from Others


The New World Economy
by: seethefuture2002
04/24/06 02:55 pm

The folks like Bill O'Reilly, Governor Rendell, Fritz Schumer and most Americans have not been able to grasp that the US has NO option it can exercise that will reduce the price of oil in any significant manner.

There are only two fundamental ways to do so:
1. Reduce demand
2. Increase supply.

Now O'Reilly believes that we can reduce our consumption by 3% and influence the world demand. That is increasingly not true as the Chinas and Indias of the world ramp up their consumption. Reducing our consumption, by tax, by boycott, or by hounding will NOT LOWER THE PRICE OF OIL ANYMORE. The US used to be such a huge consumer that changes in our consumption habits could influence the world oil prices. Now, it just means that the producer sells to someone else. The US has no control over prices on the demand side of oil! (Just like OPEC no longer has control over prices on the supply side of oil.)

Now we have known that the US has no control over the supply side. That went to OPEC years ago. The US's role is to maintain stability in order to keep the price of oil from going ballistic.

So let the talking heads bang the drum. We can't do anything about it. It's out of our control.

Isn't the first step to addiction recovery admitting that you are powerless?