2 For 1 Bankruptcy Special

[Bob Owens]

What market are you talking about? The oil market? You don't think that while the USA continue to use more gas every year, but hasn't built a refinery in 30 years could cause a bit of a shortage. You don't think China continues to import more an more oil every year? Could it be that demand has caught up to supply?

[post="300734"][/post]​

What shortage? all I see is the price going up, I dont see anybody running out.

I'll agree that we use too much fossil fuel. We are the third largest producer of oil but we consume double of what we produce. More than the next 7 largest conumers combined!!! But you can thank the Republicans for that. Carter started a plan to make us "Energy independant by the year 2000". Carter even had Solar Panels installed on the White House roof and passed tax credits for those who went to alternate energy sources.

Reagan got in, had the Solar Panels ripped off the roof and cancelled all the tax credits. Bush got in a gave tax incentives to purchase gas guzzlers and pushed to reduce CAFE standards.

The fact is the oil companies are gouging the public. Their own figures show us that!! Supply has not outsripped demand to the exent that prices have increased.

 

[FWAAA]

Just a few years ago, the world was awash in oil (lots of supply/capacity) and the price of oil fell to about $10/bbl.

Fast forward six years and demand has caught up with supply and the price skyrockets to $70/bbl (and today is still $65).

In my world, price is the best way to ration a finite resource. But others don't always understand that and cry "Price Gouging" when the market price increases.

Meanwhile the price of domestic hub and spoke airline seats continues to decline as the LCCs add capacity much faster than it can be absorbed.

Looks a lot like the oil market of 1999 to me.

2 choices to solve this problem: Either reduce the capacity of those hub and spoke domestic seats or lower expenses for those that exist. And I think the existing employees have suffered enough in the way of lower costs (paycuts).

The only sensible solution left is for a good deal of that domestic hub and spoke capacity to disappear. Then the price of the remaining seats could increase. Perhaps not as dramatic as oil prices in the last six years, but we have had $10/bbl-style prices for those seats far too long. Wouldn't some $70/bbl-style seat prices be a welcome change?