President Obama, for what they view as treating him like the Messiah, and here you go giving him God like powers. The area has always been a power keg, and the destabilization started before Libya. And, he didn't destabilize it.

Realistically, we are in GWB's 3rd term, and probably 4th term when 2012 rolls around. Having a split govt helped. Irrespective of health care, what's really changed, significantly. Taxes the same. GITMO still open. We're still in the Middle East. Obama continued with TARP. Both spend money like drunken sailors, well Obama a bit more. Obama making nice nice with business. Both have shitty approval ratings. Oil will probably retest the 2008 highs.

Somebody is going to nitpick about something stupid or trivial, but at a macro level, what is really different? Hey, the S&P is up 60% since Obama took office. Hey, that makes me happy.

no clue on how the market works. Notice everyone is complaining about oil/gas, but if you created a chart that included cotton, cooper, corn, and just about every other commodity, they would mirror the gains in oil over the past couple of years.

All I can say is that they will all continue to rise. I guess there are those that just like to bitch about it without thinking about how to profit from it.

I would love for some of these people to do a message search from about six years ago where I told them how they too could profit from the impending rise in oil/commodity prices.

America is a great country, all you have to do is have half a clue as to what is about to happen and you too can be an evil, capitalistist, profit monger. lol

Sorry to have been away for a few hours folks, but I have been busy spending my "ill gotten wealth" fucking prostitutes in Costa Rica. lol

As has been said here ad nauseum, "same old shit, different day"

President Obama's 1st campaign commercial.  Its a good response to the post below.

and it's probably my fault too. But do I care what others think? Wait for it! Here it comes! Fuck no! If 99.9% of the traders/experts say that oil and other commodities are rising, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a whole monger to figure it out.

I'll tell you why you are OK. Not because you are an evil capitalist. Not because you are a whore monger. Not because you are a drunk, or a gambler. It's because you don't post fucking stupid pictures. There are now 3 or 4 clowns on this board attaching some of the most ridiculous shit pictures. It's the little things that tend to set me off. Other than that, you have a wonderful time getting laid and drunk. Now back to the Laker game.

-- Modified on 4/5/2011 8:40:08 PM

maybe he could spend a little time to work to help us Americans?  like gas price hikes? food price hikes? budget woes? ...oh i forgot, it is all Bush's fault...time for us to elect a president ,,not just a mouthpiece who is on vaation all the time.

Any ideas as to what to do?

How about not destabilizing the region.

Who said it was all Bush's fault?  But now that you mention him, no other President (especially Obama) took more time on vacation than Bush.  Thanks for another fact-free post nuguy!

Powerful Hand Holding

Holding hands might be a sign of friendship in the Middle East, but when President Bush grabbed Saudi crown Prince Abdullah's hand and held on, it became water-cooler fodder, Jim Axelrod reports.

.
President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah hold on tight.  (AP)

.Hand-in-hand through the Texas bluebells.  (AP)

.(CBS)  President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah holding hands as they stroll. It's only Wednesday, but I think we can all agree on a "picture of the week."

"Picture of the week?" asks XXXX. "It might be picture of the month."

He's got a point, if headlines, cartoons and late night comics are any criteria.

As CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports, while it clearly strikes a nerve, you get the feeling it goes beyond coziness with the Saudis or dependence on their oil.

Asked what he makes of it, one man says, "I don't like it."

When it comes to two men holding hands, America's got issues.

"I mean I'd love to meet the president, but I'm not going to walk around holding his hand," says one wag in New York's Times Square. "I'm not that kind of guy, know what I'm saying."

"Well, you notice it,'' said one woman.

Nevermind that Mr. Bush might actually get some points for it in the Middle East.

"Two leaders holding hands, there is nothing wrong in it," says Jamal Dajani. "In the traditional Arab society it's a sign of friendship.

"It's a sign of respect."

But in Times Square? Not so much.

"If I want to talk with you, I'll shake your hand," says one man. "I ain't gonna hold your hand and walk down the damn street, you know."

Told that that's the way it's done in the Middle East, the man says: "They don't do it in New York City that way."

So much for basking in the warm glow of each other's cultural differences.

Thanks again for another fact-free post!  Oil prices spiked when the revolution in Tunisia spread to Egypt and Libya -- not to mention unrest throughout the rest of the region.  It had already gone well over $100 a barrel before we got involved in Libya.  But, hey!  Don't let the facts confuse you!

All he has to do is flood the market with some of the stragetic reserve. Clinton did it and gas prices tanked. Of course, we have no shortage of petrol. The price is high because (as always) Wall Street shenanigans. And despite that we just went through the biggest white collar crime spree in all of world history, no one has gone to jail for it, unless you count a bit player like Bernie Madoff.

program apparently at levels greater than did the Bush administration and without any real pretense of killing 9/11 participants or planners. Best as I can tell, anyone who shoots back at us is eligible for vaporization now.

But the program under Obama has been much more successful and aggressive against Al Queda and theTaliban than it was under Bush.

You guys start debating about oil (which spiked again today) as opposed to the video that covered his FAILURE of a record.  It wont be going away guys.

I'll leave it to one of the more level headed posters to tell you why you are so wrong about the SPR. St Croix, please educate this dumbass.

The facts on this are kind of irrefutable, GaGa.  Under Obama the number of drone attacks has increased dramatically, with many more bad guys killed.

my objection to the drone warfare practiced by both presidents, which is understandable since you are new to the Board and have not had to shoulder the burden of reading the 25 to 30 posts I have made on this topic, much to the dismay of the rest of the Board.

     The link provides the most graphic explanation of the problem but suffice to say the number of bad guys killed is hardly the criterion of success here.

given that Mr. Obama made the decision to continue and apparently even increase drone attacks without implementing rules of engagement that protected innocents, he should at the very least return the Nobel Peace Prize.

Just bc those corporations hit the skids does not mean that anyone committed a crime. Aside from that, Ken Lewis was charged with securities fraud by Cuomo and the SEC and DOJ has not concluded their investigation of Fuld and others who may still be charged, particularly Fuld after the recent report of the Bankruptcy trustee.

     Willy can I suggest that you read the Wall Street Journal instead of Rolling Stone to get our financial info?

Just what I want to do, give willy a tutorial on why oil prices are $109 for WTI and $123 for Brent. And this to a guy that gets his news from MSNBC, NPR and Democracy Now.

Willy, can you spell the word G-L-O-B-A-L? Oil is a global commodity. Go ahead and throw Wall Street traders in jail. What do you think the traders are going to do in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Berlin and Paris?

There are a number of key factors, including but not limited to improvement in the global economy. Again, look at prices for ALL commodities. The world doesn't revolve around the U.S. You've got close to 600M people in China, India and Brazil moving to the middle class. They are buying shit like cars. The economy is improving in both the developed and emerging markets.

Oil is priced in dollars. How is the dollar doing these days? Go look at the US dollar index vs WTI (West Texas Intermediate)in 2008 and today. Very similar. Lower dollar puts upward pressure on prices. You can't blame oil on the dollar. You can blame deficit spending & QE 2. See Obama and Bernanke.

The last $15 to $18 increase in oil prices is directly attributed to geopolitical events. Libya's 1.8M barrels. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's sweet crude, which is the best crude. All that oil goes to Europe. Can you spell GLOBAL. Add all the other instability in the Middle East, including Yemen. Why Yemen? They don't have a lot of oil. Look at a map and see where M.E. oil flows through on its way to Europe.

Oh shit I forgot. Those damn Nigerians are at it again. They just love to blow up a pipeline or two every so often. It really pisses off Chevron. They too have light sweet crude vs the heavy crude produced in Saudi Arabia. Funny, all this shit happening around the world, and we get most of our imported oil from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela (yes Venezuela - thank you Hugo Chavez and Sean Penn), Nigeria and Angola. Can you spell GLOBAL?

Just for fun let's throw in Japan and a little fear that the use of nuclear energy in the future will be impacted. Can you spell GLOBAL?

Willy, I could go on and on and on, but unfortunately you don't truly understand how commodities, stocks, currencies are traded GLOBALLY.

marikod's position on drones. It goes back a long way. I believe there are circumstances when marikod would approve the use of drones and their very effective hellfire missiles. One example, is the targeting of one Roman Polanski. Preferably targeting Polanski while he is sitting in a French cafe sipping on an elegant full body bordeaux red. Of course, we would need to ensure there are no innocent bystanders. This hellfire would target Polanski's asshole. I honestly think marikod would actually drive to Nellis AFB to personally fly the drone and literally shoot the shit out of Polanski (lol).

Please, please, please don't ask why Polanski. It's another long running, almost comical debate.

Sort of like: "Don't think about a pink elephant!"

I don't, but there's room for disagreement.  My agrument is with those who complain that Obama's soft on terror, or on Islam, when he's been aggressive with the drones and with adding troops to Afghanistan, as well as taking part in the Libyan action.

Oh, well, any prize started by the inventor of dynamite and previously given to people like Henry (the war criminal) Kissinger, Yasser (the terrorist) Arafat and Menachim (member of the Stern Gang) Begin has no credibilitiy anyway.  Obama hasn't killed nearly enough people yet to be ranked with these guys.

I will authorize the State of California to spend a million dollars to bring Roman Polanksi to justice if you and Mattrade will agree to have your property taxes increased to fund the prosecution.


      In the meantime, check out "The Ghostwriter" directed in Germany apparently right before he was arrested. He still is a first class director and this Tony Blair roman a clef brings out some of the issues we have discussed on the Board about prosecuting heads of state for torturing terrorists.

We've discussed this before. I realize you have an issue w/Prop 13. When you look at the aggregate of California taxes, we are in the top 5 highest tax states in the Union. Property taxes basically fund education. The Teachers Union did a great job of negotiating a sweet extortion deal which guarantees almost 50% of every tax dollar, property and income tax included. I'm not even sure property taxes fund prosecution cases.

I believe I agreed re your cost/benefit analysis on bringing Polanski back to the States for prosecution, and what sentence, if any, might be imposed.

I did see the "Ghostwriter". It was a decent movie. Yes, I knew Polanski was the Director. It's not that I believe in boycott's per se. I don't know what it has to do with Polanski other than he is still gainfully employed, and you like his work.

Nevertheless, if you like European made movies, then see the movie "Taken" starring Liam Neeson. Made and filmed in Paris with a French director. Basically, Liam Neeson's teenage daughter is kidnapped in Paris after arriving for her 1st overseas trip. Kidnapped by an Albanian gang with the intent of selling the girl to some rich Middle Easterner. See, there are parallel's to Polanski. He raped and sodomized a teenage girl. I have a girl. This movie is about a girl, but the difference is justice is served, albeit not in the traditional methods. If Polanski raped and sodomize my daughter, yeah I would exact justice. Maybe not as thorough and elegantly like Neesom, but yeah I would do something.

My original intent was to be a bit humorous. That's all. I think we can finally bury Polanski, figuratively.

But a dumbass that's just repeating what you've told me.

"Yes, speculation is what's driving the price of oil, and by extension gasoline." -GaGambler

Read the attached article from an oil analyst based in Singapore. What he says basically mirrors what GaG said in his post in early March. Geopolitical events, improved economic momentum, and yes, some speculation. But there has always been speculation, and there always will be as it relates to commodities, currencies and equities.

Go ahead willy, throw all the Wall Street speculators in jail. As GaG said, trading, speculation, whatever you want to call it is a global activity as evident by this one article.

Re SPR. You do know it was designed for national emergencies. There is about 700M barrels in the SPR. Let's say they release 50M barrels tomorrow. It's not going to have an impact on the price. That's basically 2 days worth of oil consumption in the U.S, and a bit more than 1/2 day of global consumption. Did you know that China, Japan, UK, Germany, just about every developed country has an SPR. How come we haven't heard squat from those countries about releasing reserves?

If you remove the risk premium, i.e. Libya, Middle East, Nigeria, etc., WTI and Brent will drop $15 to $20 bucks in a nanosecond. Again, reread GaG's post. Add the current Administration's view of drilling, there's nothing you, I, GaG, or anyone else can do about it.

But I do find it a bit funny that Obama mentions to the Brazilian President during his visit that he wants the U.S. to be Brazil's biggest and best customer of their oil. Where do you think Brazil is and will continue to get the bulk of their oil. Offshore, and more specifically from Petrobras.

We have beat this oil topic to death. We need to move on to something else.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42466136

-- Modified on 4/6/2011 10:19:05 PM

Willy is actually right that releasing oil from the SPR would in fact lower  oil and gas prices.  Where he's wrong is, it would be a dumb idea and at variance with the intended use of the SPR, which was never intended to be a pricing instrument but a way to deal  with supply disruptions.  And what it has to do with Wall Street is beyond me.

not just here but world wide.

Honestly StCroix, how do you find the patience to explains the basics to someone who obviously doesn't want to learn?

Willy doesn't want to learn how the markets actually work so he could possibly take advantage of it someday, or at least argue intelligently about it's failings, he just wants to snipe at it without a clue to how it actually works. That's the reason I so rarely engage Willy in conversation, it's like trying to teach a pig to sing.

It appears I got one, or maybe two if you count Willy. lol

Click on this, GaGa!
(never realized Willy looked like Kermit!)