Oil

[NY4Ever]

Oil down on letter from Iran's president to Bush. Just a bunch of BS from a psychopath.

[mrmarket]

from which country??

[New-born baby]

It's the Iranian Psychopath

from which country??

The Iranian President, obviously. You shouldn't need to ask. He just got through with a week-long conference entitled "The World without Zionism." Along with the rest of the Muslim world, his goal is to kill every Jew in the world. It is also the goal of the Muslims to exterminate everyone who is not a Muslim, i.e., that includes Christians, too. World domination is their goal.

I don't think President Bush is anywhere near that category, do you?

[Rob]

Snippet

From http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...08markets.aspx:

"Oil prices continued to fall, sliding today on hopes of a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's nuclear program. New York light crude futures fell $1.44 to $68.75 per barrel at 1:30 p.m.

"Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote a letter to President Bush giving 'an analysis of the current world situation, of the root of existing problems and of new ways of getting out of the current vulnerable situation in the world,' an Iranian government spokesman said, according to Reuters."

[mrmarket]

The Iranian President, obviously. You shouldn't need to ask. He just got through with a week-long conference entitled "The World without Zionism." Along with the rest of the Muslim world, his goal is to kill every Jew in the world. It is also the goal of the Muslims to exterminate everyone who is not a Muslim, i.e., that includes Christians, too. World domination is their goal.

I don't think President Bush is anywhere near that category, do you?

He needs to learn not to smirk.

[ParkTwain]

For going on 6 years, Bush has done a fine job of talking the price of oil ever higher. Whose side is he on?

[New-born baby]

Park

For going on 6 years, Bush has done a fine job of talking the price of oil ever higher. Whose side is he on?

How did he do that?

[ParkTwain]

Hedge funds (uh-oh) are participating in oil futures trading on NYMEX:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/30/business/web.0430oil.php

[ParkTwain]

How did he do that?

By picking a fight with Iraq, with Venezuela, and now with Iran. My God, what did he think would happen to the price of oil with him always chattering about invading this and bombing that. You would think he has lots of friends in the oil business.

[DSteckler]

So I guess strong demand by China and India has nothing to do with it, eh?

[ParkTwain]

Well, Dave, I guess you're right, India and China obviously only started buying oil in meaningfully larger quantities just after G.W. Bush took office (year 2000):

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Oil/Historical_Oil_Prices_Chart.htm

<gulp>

Here's another interesting angle (October 2005), that of trying to determine the risk-adjusted "true" price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil by examining on a quarterly basis the change in price versus the market-driving news of the day at that time (see Chart 3 on page 2):

http://www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/oilrisk.pdf

//
An analysis of the inflation-adjusted change in the price of oil (in 2004 dollars) during the period 1970 to 2005 reveals that the quarterly change in the real price of WTI oil has averaged 35 U.S. cents during this period. Based on simple descriptive statistics, the quarterly change in oil price will fall between US$9.95 and -US$9.25 approximately 95% of the time (see chart 3). Following the inland arrival of Hurricane Katrina, the real price of oil rose 40% above the top of the 95% band, implying that the price of WTI at US$68 a barrel contained approximately a US$4 risk premium based on hurricane related concerns alone.
//

Also, the world price for a barrel of oil is denominated in U.S. dollars. As the value of the dollar declines relative to all other currencies (at least the currencies of the nations that import most of the exported oil), the price of oil would tend to rise anyway.

Also, please remember an additional fact about the ramifications of barking war-talk at Iran. Iran could effectively (but not forever) close the Strait of Hormuz through which passes not just some/all of the oil exported from Iran but also from all the other Persian Gulf oil terminals. So, messing with Iran is also messing with all the Persian Gulf oil (Bahrain, Dubai, UAE, Saudi, etc.) exported through the Strait of Hormuz. Why would Prez Bush want to mess with that in the eyes of the world community?

[New-born baby]

Saddam

How did he do that?

By picking a fight with Iraq, with Venezuela, and now with Iran. My God, what did he think would happen to the price of oil with him always chattering about invading this and bombing that. You would think he has lots of friends in the oil business.

Park,
After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, to which Pres. Clinton did not respond, they bombed it again in 2001. If you were President, what would you have done? I understand that you would not have invaded Iraq. How about Afghanistan? Or what exactly would you have done?

[ParkTwain]

Regarding the second U.S. invasion of Iraq, you might want to read some background on the political action committee that called itself the People for a New American Century:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=pnac+background&btnG=Search

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neo-conservatives/list

I'm being honest here. These guys (including Rumsfeld) advocated taking out Saddam while Clinton was prez. Way before 9/11 happened.

Also notice how many PNAC guys ended up working in the Bush Administration.

You have to ask yourself the questions:

What nation benefits the most by simply kicking Saddam out of power? (Answer #1)

What nation benefits the most by there being political and social chaos in Iraq (with or without the continuing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq) after the removal of Saddam? (Answer #2)

[New-born baby]

Regarding the second U.S. invasion of Iraq, you might want to read some background on the political action committee that called itself the People for a New American Century:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=pnac+background&btnG=Search

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neo-conservatives/list

I'm being honest here. These guys (including Rumsfeld) advocated taking out Saddam while Clinton was prez. Way before 9/11 happened.

Also notice how many PNAC guys ended up working in the Bush Administration.

But what would you have done in response to the second WTC attack? If invading Iraq was wrong, what was the right thing to do?

[ParkTwain]

Go after al Qaeda in Afghanistan, which is what Bush did. Those guys are criminals who happen also to have a domestic political agenda for Saudi Arabia. Bush cleaned out their camps, but didn't finish the job of capturing Bin Laden. Bush also toppled the Taliban, with whom the U.S. Gov't and American companies had previously made commercial (pipeline) deals.