Last year was the year that oil prices came close to breaching $80 per barrel. This was despite the fact that there were no significant supply interruptions and oil demand fell in industrialized countries. That raises the question of what caused the spike.
It turns out there is good reason to believe that record oil prices may have been due to our own strategic oil reserve, which the Bush administration may have been manipulating to drive up prices for the benefit of its supporters. This is something Congress must investigate, and here is some preliminary evidence.
Any finding of manipulation would be economic treason. When global oil prices increase, Americans must pay more for imported oil. That increases the U.S. trade deficit. Alternatively, one can think of price manipulation as the equivalent of a tax increase on American families paid to foreign governments.
Congress must investigate the strategic oil reserve; how it has been managed and what its purpose is. The recently announced expansion serves no real national security function (though that will be the justification) and will only drive up oil prices.
One last factoid. A recent working paper posted by the International Monetary Fund documented that oil prices in the United States appear to be politically manipulated, falling prior to elections. If you are an economist, you ask how that is done. The answer is the strategic oil reserve.
Lemme see if I understand this - two really corrupt oil patch bastards in the White House who give billions of our tax dollars to their friends in their old line of work and who are liars and cheats to the bone besides...
Manipulate oil for the benefit of large donors?
Yeah, they did it.
Maybe we need to hang 'em on a gas pump...
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