What was that about oil?
Supply and demand dispels all the rumors and pseudo-economic mumbo-jumbo.
NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices shed more than $2 Thursday to settle at their lowest level since June 2005, after the U.S. government reported higher-than-expected inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel amid warm winter temperatures.
An unseasonably mild winter in the Northeast and Midwest has led to a buildup in inventories and, as a result, weaker prices.
"There is no winter at all, thus we have a lot of supplies with no home and prices have nothing to do but fall," said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla.
Light, sweet crude for February dropped $2.73, or 4.7 percent, to settle at $55.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement follows a 4.5 percent decline Wednesday and represents the lowest settlement price since June 15, 2005.
Gone, too, are the outrageous claims that President Bush "do something" about the price of oil, as if the President could wave a magic wand and make global demand dissipate or reverse 30 years of restrictions on oil exploration and production in the west.
Democrats, however, still plan on taxing the "greedy" oil companies. This will reduce corporate profits, reduce the incentive to find and produce more oil and eventually lead to higher prices.
Which will again be blamed on the oil companies and "their friends in Washington" as taxes on energy products and energy companies are glossed over.
Saner people would have instituted a reality check by now.
NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices shed more than $2 Thursday to settle at their lowest level since June 2005, after the U.S. government reported higher-than-expected inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel amid warm winter temperatures.
An unseasonably mild winter in the Northeast and Midwest has led to a buildup in inventories and, as a result, weaker prices.
"There is no winter at all, thus we have a lot of supplies with no home and prices have nothing to do but fall," said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla.
Light, sweet crude for February dropped $2.73, or 4.7 percent, to settle at $55.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement follows a 4.5 percent decline Wednesday and represents the lowest settlement price since June 15, 2005.
Gone, too, are the outrageous claims that President Bush "do something" about the price of oil, as if the President could wave a magic wand and make global demand dissipate or reverse 30 years of restrictions on oil exploration and production in the west.
Democrats, however, still plan on taxing the "greedy" oil companies. This will reduce corporate profits, reduce the incentive to find and produce more oil and eventually lead to higher prices.
Which will again be blamed on the oil companies and "their friends in Washington" as taxes on energy products and energy companies are glossed over.
Saner people would have instituted a reality check by now.