Those Nasty Oil Companies!

If you listen to the politicians, particularly Democratic ones, the current high gas prices are the fault of the Big Bad Oil Companies. While I don't think these companies are altruistic, they compete on a global basis and this tends to hold prices in check. No, there are two other factors hitting Americans in the booty.

The first is the more limited the supply, the more producers can jack up the pricing their product. The U.S. has shut down its drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and isn't even letting it start in Alaska, so we have to buy a lot of OPEC oil. They know it and are socking it to us.

The second reason flows from the first and that is the price of oil is stable or strengthening while our dollar is weak, reflecting the condition of our economy. Thus, the OPEC lords want to be paid the market price for their oil and that means more dollars per barrel et voila - the price goes up as paid in dollars.

How to solve the conundrum? Strengthen the economy and use less foreign oil. If you want to exacerbate the problem, keep adding to the deficit. Oh, and has anybody ever mentioned that food is susceptible to the same type of pricing as oil and that we produce more food by far than anyone else in the world? Hmm - perhaps if we tied the price of our food exports to oil countries to the price of their oil? Just a thought.

www.rvbusiness.com/2011/04/weak-dollar-sending-gasoline-prices-upward/