Gas prices have gone down 17% recently,
from $3.15 on August 1 to $2.67 today. I've heard and read several opinions that Bush is manipulating gas prices to increase Republican popularity for the midterm election, and supposedly
42% of Americans think Bush controls oil prices.
On one hand I can't rule it out entirely. It's possible, I suppose,
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There are fixed costs in the oil industry regardless of the per-barrel price: shipping the oil, running the refinery, mopping off the seals, etc. I wouldn't expect gas prices to drop at the same rate as crude prices any more than I'd expect furnished home prices to drop at the same rate as plywood and drywall prices.
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Oh. Sorry. My "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is acting up again today.
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I just don't think that the White House or their friends are doing very much - or can do very much - due to the realities of the market and a corporation's responsibility to put profits before everything else. I don't think they've been either slacking off or intentionally keeping prices high throughout the summer to make the November plunge seem better, any more than I think they intentionally drove up August Iraq combat casualties to make September's drop look better. The Bush Administration is making a constant effort to keep combat fatalities and oil prices low, but I don't think special election-season efforts are responsible for either decline ( ... )
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I have no idea how likely it is that there's price manipulation going on, but I disagree that market forces/corporate responsibility would prevent it. We don't have a free market in gasoline in the US, and oil companies can dictate retail price to individual retailers. If Exxon thought it was in their best interest to support some House incumbant, they could tell all Exxon gas stations in that incumbant's district to cut their prices by 20%. It would cost them money in the short term, but so does lobbying; if it results in policies that mean higher long-term profits, they'll eat the short term cost.
On the other hand, I'll happily admit that I'm not an oil industry expert, and there may be all kinds of practicalities that make this completely implausible.
Sure Chavez and Ahmadinejad want to hurt Bush...I wouldn't be so sure ( ... )
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I wish I could buy into that possibility, but I can't...now if Bush were the one campaigning for re-election? Hell, then I'd give it a serious shot and possibly find some sort of discrepency somewhere that might indicate the distinct workable possibility for a conspiracy...especially if you could chalk in a reasonable number of Bushite cronies currently on the top tier of the National Oil Cartels...but I'm pretty sure that there's no way of it at this point and juncture...unless there's been some government documents to back some type of temporary price lockdown we're not aware of...but then it wouldn't be conspiracy 'cause we could prove it...
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Thank you.
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