But whatever you hear or believe, please remember that
There is no shortage...there is no shortage !!!!!!!

 

whatever congress tries to do about speculation will not help. there's little if any evidence that speculation is causing the rise. uncertainty is causing the volatility - if anything, speculation adds to the liquidity in the market. for every "speculator" who "bets" on a price rise, there's someone (a "speculator," investor or oil producer) who "bets" the other side of the contract. it takes two to tango - the finger pointing at the speculators is way overblown.

congress can make an immediate impact by doing the following:

1. tear down the capital controls on foreign ownership of US airlines. fully opening up our domestic airline industry to foreign investment will immediately benefit the industry.

congress can make a positive and relatively short-run impact by doing the following:

2. review and revise permitting for petroleum refining operations - we haven't had a new refinery built here in decades; thus, we pay the transporation costs to import a great deal of our refined/distilled products - and expectations that these costs will rise exacerbate the crack spreads.

3. open up domestic energy production. this includes allowing drilling as well as tearing down barriers to nuke production.

congress can make a long run impact by doing the following:

4. support a foreign policy that favors freedom over tyranny. free nations simply don't (and have never) threatened one another with embargoes and supply shocks. while promoting freedom will result in accelerated world economic growth, thus increasing energy demand, free nations will also ensure a more stable supply.

 

The Fed needs to raise interest rates......

 

agreed - it'll be economically painful in the short term, but inflation is only prolonging the pain.

i have a hunch that if the fed had done it some time ago, we would have gotten some of the pain over with by now. it's like dying by a thousand paper cuts the way it's going now.

 

First off 70% of all oil trades is done by speculators up from 30% in recent years. Thus increasing the price. Demand hasnt gone up 100% in a year and the dollar hasnt raised oil prices by over 100% either. Speculation is part of the problem and there is proof of it whether you want to believe it or not. I have seen the presentations from people with your argument and the the others whom argue speculation is a problem. There definitely is evidence that part of the spike in oil prices is a result of speculation.

Also opening up an American Travel industry to foreign ownership is nothing more than selling more of our country to foreigners. Foreign ownership would be bad for our industry and our economy. We need to stop selling our country off piece by piece.

 

Can I call for a sticky on this...

 

What's a sticky? Stays stuck to the top? Good idea.

Anyone who thinks that speculation is not a huge part of this has money in the game or has been fed a bunch of bs from people with money in the game.

 

An Open Letter to All Airlines
By Bill Mann, Tim Hanson, Nate Weisshaar, and Joe Magyer July 10, 2008 Comments (6)

10 Recommendations

Dear CEOs of AirTran (NYSE: AAI), Alaska Airlines, AMR (NYSE: AMR), Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL), Delta Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU), Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA), and US Airways (NYSE: LCC),

Thank you for your July 10 letter detailing the threat of rising oil prices to your businesses and our economy and for encouraging us to help you "Stop Oil Speculation Now." We have a few follow-up comments, questions, and suggestions.

First, we feel your pain. You have, historically, been a group of such well-run businesses that it's difficult to watch some of you pile up losses and flirt with bankruptcy. This is unprecedented in our economic history and the situation clearly requires urgent action.

Or not. Didn't Eastern Airlines collapse when oil was $12 per barrel? Come to think of it, U.S.-based airlines have eviscerated shareholder capital for decades. The Oracle of Omaha invested in U.S. Air one time, and has described the fact that he managed to make money as being indistinguishable from blind stinking luck (we're paraphrasing here). We even have a colleague who wrote recently that he wouldn't recommend airline stocks to his worst enemy.

So perhaps you shouldn't be blaming oil traders for your difficulties, but rather should focus on developing a robust, highly efficient industry based on the ideal of competition which ensures timely and enjoyable coast-to-coast (and even international) travel. That means, first and foremost, good service -- even for economy class passengers. After all, people will always need to travel. You might find out that airline passengers are more willing to pay up to fly (see the growth of a company like NetJets) when they know it won't be a dreadful experience.

But please let us know if your strategy works. We're pretty fed up with how the stock market has been declining recently. Perhaps we can convince Congress that the downturn threatens American savings and has been driven by "speculators" who are selling stocks without regard to their fundamental prospects and that we need regulations that will "Stop Stock Selling Now."

Yeah, that sounds like a foolproof solution.

Sincerely,

Us

Found at themotleyfool.com

 

We've hit peak oil, the changes we're seeing in the industry today are consistent w/ what would be expected w/ peak oil.

The CEOs could have done a better job of trying to mitigate the consequences of oil prices...what did they expect, for oil prices to stay flat? Now to try and soften the impact of their mismanagement, the CEOs have figured a form letter to Joe public will solicit change...fat chance.

This is probably the most pathetic thing I've seen from airline management so far. Probably concocted this plan while they were at the annual CEO get-together they have up in Wyoming each year.

 

Oh really i guess the numerous other countries that are also calling for an end to oil speculation are "pathetic" also?

http://www.riverfrontig.com/commenta...c/sv063008.pdf

Also today China announced they were going to export oil because they had to much. That should have dropped the price of oil today showing a decrease in demand in China, which is who the speculators like to blame for the Supply and Demand "issue", but instead Oil Spiked $5 dollars today on NOTHING. Speculators are trying to point fingers at anything but speculation to try and draw attention away from their greed.

This has alot more to do with speculation than some may want to admit.